Maine lobstermen Unhappy With Rope Ban?

He said the fishing rope piled high in his pickup truck and trailer was still good, except for one thing: Come Sunday, it will be illegal.

A new federal regulation, years in the works, outlaws the use of floating rope that connects millions of lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Marine scientists and conservationists say using rope that sinks will make the whales less prone to getting snagged as they lumber through the Gulf of Maine each spring and summer.

Lobstermen such as Thompson, who lives on the island of Vinalhaven, say the rule will increase costs and do little, if anything, to help whales. They claim the regulation is overkill and could make lobstermen as endangered as the whales.

"They're slowly driving us out of the lobster business, aren't they?" a grim-faced Thompson said last week.

Whale advocates maintain the rule is a vital tool to protect right whales. Five cases have been documented in recent years of the whales getting tangled in gear set by Maine lobstermen, said Vicki Cornish, of the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy group.

"They're always at risk because there are such low numbers," Cornish said.

The North Atlantic right whale was severely overharvested through the 19th century by aboriginal and commercial whalers who found them easy targets because they're slow swimmers and their high fat content makes them float after they die. There are now an estimated 300 to 400.