California-based Seafood Watch this week issued a recommendation to avoid Maine lobster, drawing the ire of Maine politicians.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch gave a red rating to the U.S. and Canadian lobster industries, saying they aren’t doing enough to protect the North Atlantic right whale.  The whale is endangered and U.S. federal regulators have imposed new fishing gear guidelines to try to help protect the species.

A red rating from Seafood Watch recommends that consumers “take a pass on these for now,” and the group said in a statement that “Canadian and U.S. management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery” of the whales.

Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that describes itself as “working directly with businesses and governments around the world — increasing both the market demand for, and a reliable supply of, sustainable seafood.” 

The group issues other ratings such as “best choice” if it deems the fisheries well managed or “good alternative” advising consumers to buy the product but that they should be aware of how the species is “caught, farmed or managed.”

It’s unclear if the red rating will have any impact on the state’s $1 billion lobster industry.

With fewer than 340 right whales left, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a seasonal ban on lobstering gear in a nearly 1,000-square-mile area off New England to try to protect the whales. 

In August, the Maine Lobstering Union dropped part of its lawsuit against the restrictions, according to the Associated Press. Instead, the union will focus on litigation over other rules intended to protect the whales.

Maine Democrats and Republicans blasted Seafood Watch for its rating.

“Seafood Watch is misleading consumers and businesses with this designation,” Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Generations of Maine lobstermen have worked hard to protect the sustainability of the lobster fishery and they have taken unprecedented steps to protect right whales — efforts that the Federal government and now Seafood Watch have failed to recognize.”

Mills’ opponent in the Nov. 8 election, former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, said in a statement that the state’s lobster industry is “one of the most sustainable fisheries on Earth.”

“As Governor again, I will push back at organizations falsely attacking our lobster industry as well as the Biden Administration’s destructive regulatory policy aimed at destroying the livelihoods of our fishermen over the false notion they are harming whales,” LePage said.

And former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican who represented Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, called the rating “grossly misleading.”

Poliquin is running for the seat again and will face current U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat and Portland attorney Tiffany Bond, an independent, in November.

“There has not been a single right whale death that can be traced to Maine lobstering equipment and there has not been a right whale entanglement in lobstering gear in almost two decades,” Poliquin said.