II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5067 

To provide that no Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or granted 

to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 11, 2022 

Mr. KING (for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To provide that no Federal funds shall be appropriated, 

awarded, or granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Red Listing Monterey 

5 Bay Aquarium Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) Lobstering has served as an economic en9 gine and family tradition in Maine and the other 

10 New England States for centuries. 


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1 (2) The lobster fishery supports thousands of 

2 families who make their livelihoods from catching, 

3 processing, or serving lobsters, employing people of 

4 all ages year-round, with many harvesters beginning 

5 as children and staying in the industry for their en6 tire working lives. 

7 (3) Maine’s lobster fishery alone has an esti8 mated ex-vessel value of $725,000,000, generating 

9 more than $1,000,000,000 in economic activity and 

10 supporting more than 15,500 jobs throughout the 

11 supply chain. 

12 (4) The lobster industry has spearheaded sus13 tainability measures for more than 150 years, ensur14 ing the health of the lobster stock and the marine 

15 environment through the following: 

16 (A) In 1872, Maine passed the first law 

17 banning taking of egg-bearing female lobster. 

18 (B) In 1874, Maine passed the first laws 

19 regulating the minimum size of lobster that 

20 could be harvested. 

21 (C) In 1948, Maine passed a requirement 

22 that fishermen mark female, egg-bearing lob23 sters with a V-shaped notch. 

24 (D) In 1997, Maine lobstermen removed 

25 all surface floating rope and, in 2009, replaced 


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1 an estimated 27,000 miles of floating line with 

2 whale-safe sinking lines. 

3 (E) In 2015, Maine lobstermen adjusted 

4 their gear in certain areas to a newly required 

5 minimum number of traps per buoy, reducing 

6 the amount of vertical rope present in the water 

7 by an additional 3,000 miles. 

8 (F) In 2022, lobstermen converted their 

9 gear once again, including more ‘‘weak links’’, 

10 more ‘‘weak rope’’, and more traps per buoy, to 

11 further reduce vertical line in the water column, 

12 in additional to removing nearly 1,000 miles of 

13 gear from prime fishing grounds. 

14 (5) These measures are the reason why there 

15 has never been a serious injury or death of the en16 dangered North Atlantic right whale attributed to 

17 the Maine lobster fishery and there has not been a 

18 known right whale entanglement with Maine lobster 

19 gear since 2004. 

20 (6) According to the National Oceanic and At21 mospheric Administration, the majority of known 

22 right whale deaths since 2017 have been attributed 

23 to vessel strikes in Canada and of the 33 right whale 

24 mortalities occurring between 2017 and 2020, 24 of 

25 those whales were confirmed to be attributed to enVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:18 Oct 20, 2022 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5067.IS S5067

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1 tanglements in Canadian fishing gear and vessel 

2 strikes in Canadian waters. 

3 (7) Despite these facts, Monterey Bay Aquar4 ium’s Seafood Watch program added the American 

5 lobster fishery to a ‘‘red list’’ of seafood that con6 sumers should avoid due to the risk that the fishery 

7 poses to right whales. 

8 (8) This red list designation for American lob9 ster by Seafood Watch is speculative and conjecture, 

10 not supported by the data or the science as they 

11 state in their report, ‘‘until there is more specific in12 formation available regarding which fisheries are re13 sponsible for the unattributed entanglements, Sea14 food Watch considers that all relevant fisheries that 

15 may overlap with North Atlantic right whales pose 

16 risks’’. 

17 (9) In their own press release announcing the 

18 red listing for American lobster, Seafood Watch 

19 states, ‘‘More than 90% of entanglements cannot be 

20 linked to a specific gear type, and only 12% of en21 tanglements can be linked to a specific location.’’. 

22 (10) Monterey Bay Aquarium ignores the ef23 forts by the lobster industry to reduce their risk to 

24 right whales for the past 150 years, admitting in 


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1 their report that ‘‘effects on mitigation of whale en2 tanglement have yet to be determined’’. 

3 (11) This new, unsubstantiated designation has 

4 a real world impact; with the lobster industry al5 ready facing challenges, the inaccurate designation 

6 will hurt the thousands of hardworking lobstermen, 

7 their families, and businesses across Maine and has 

8 already prompted seafood retailers such as Blue 

9 Apron and HelloFresh to pull lobster from their 

10 menus. 

11 (12) Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch Program 

12 has produced recommendations that rely on pseudo13 scientific claims and false assumptions that ignore 

14 scientific principles that should underpin any legiti15 mate ratings and, by ignoring the facts, Seafood 

16 Watch is not encouraging safe fishing, but rather 

17 damaging the reputation of its certification process 

18 by smearing an entire industry and misleading con19 sumers. 

20 (13) Monterey Bay Aquarium receives millions 

21 of Federal taxpayer dollars for scientific research 

22 and to promote ocean conservation and seafood sus23 tainability, yet the Monterey Bay Aquarium has irre24 sponsibly ignored scientific facts and the lobster 

25 fishery’s history of sustainability. 


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1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL FUNDING FOR THE 

2 MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM. 

3 No Federal funds shall be appropriated, awarded, or 

4 granted to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

Æ 


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