A federal court is reinstating a seasonal closure of nearly 1,000 square miles of lobstering grounds off Maine's midcoast that regulators imposed last year.
The U.S. First District Court of Appeals decision ends a preliminary injunction that a lower court imposed on behalf of the Maine Lobstering Union and local lobster fishermen.
The MLU claimed the government overstated the risk that fishing gear poses of entangling endangered North Atlantic right whales. But the appeals court found that the MLU was unlikely to prevail.
As the case continues, traditional trap-pot gear will be barred from the affected area, about 30 miles off shore, from October through January.
