MONCTON, N.B. — Restrictions on the lobster fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales make no sense and could have a devastating financial impact on the lucrative industry, a fishermen’s union said Friday ahead of a meeting with the federal fisheries minister.

Carl Allen of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union said his members are worried the strict measures will result in significantly lower catches if certain areas are closed due to the presence of the imperilled whales.

“Everyone’s on edge, everyone’s anxious,” he said in an interview before meeting Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc in Moncton, N.B.

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“They’re all concerned about how this is going to affect their livelihood. They make their livelihood in two months and what happens if you lose three weeks of that? How do you make that up?”

The union had asked for an emergency meeting with LeBlanc earlier in the week and ahead of the season opening on Monday.

They’re hoping to convince the minister to alter new rules around how the fishery will be conducted in an area known to be a right whale feeding area.

The new measures announced Tuesday by the Fisheries Department include restrictions on the amount of rope used, and mandatory reporting of lost gear and whale sightings. A total of 18 North Atlantic right whales were killed in Canadian and U.S. waters last year — mainly due to vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

The union is particularly concerned about so-called dynamic closures that occur when whales are spotted in an area, forcing it to be temporarily closed to fishing for a minimum of 15 days.

A static closure will be enforced along New Brunswick’s northern coast, where 90 per cent of right whales were observed over the summer. That closure will be enforced from Saturday to June 30.

Allen says the measures are heavy handed and illogical because the whales haven’t arrived in the Gulf yet and aren’t thought to travel through some of the areas that will be subject to the closures.

Allen said the northwest corner of the static area is a very productive lobster and snow crab habitat, with an estimated 25 per cent of last year’s total allowable catch of snow crab for the southern Gulf coming out of that area.

He said lobster fishermen are being lumped in with those in the snow crab fishery, which has been associated with more whale entanglements and is also subject to similar restrictions.

“Whales stay in that deeper water, they don’t wander into that shallow water where we catch lobster,” he said. “We’ve never, ever caught one, we’ve never posed a threat to those whales so why are we getting painted with that brush? It makes no sense.”

LeBlanc was not available for an interview before his meeting, but told CBC News that he used scientific data to make decisions about the closures and that fishermen may just have to shift their fishing activity, not limit it.

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“The reality is, the whales won’t distinguish between rope attached to crab traps or rope attached to lobster traps,” he said. “We recognize it may cause an inconvenience for these fishers to have to perhaps go to other areas.”

There are only about 450 North Atlantic whales left, and many spend their summers feeding in the Gulf. Experts have said that unless the numbers change, the species could become functionally extinct in less than 25 years.

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