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Publications
R.A. Myers, S.A. Boudreau, R.D. Kenney, M.J. Moore, R.A. Rosenberg, S.A. Sherrill-Mix, and B. Worm
Saving Endangered Whales at No Cost, Current Biology 17, 10-11 (2007)
Abstract:
Maine lobstermen can protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale without hurting their bottom line, according to a scientific paper published in the journal Current Biology. A team of researchers, led by Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, compared the Nova Scotian and Maine lobster fisheries and found that Maine lobstermen could substantially reduce the number of traps, shorten the fishing season by as much as six months and still catch the same amount of lobsters at lower cost. Doing so would protect right whales by reducing the risk of entanglements in fishing gear, a key obstacle to recovery from the brink of extinction for this large, slow-moving mammal.
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