Sustainability list under fire

PORTLAND, Maine — The Monterey Bay Aquarium, a California nonprofit that maintains a list that advises consumers of how they can buy sustainably sourced seafood, could not dismiss a federal lawsuit brought in Maine by members of the lobster industry who say the poor sustainability rating given to American lobster defamed them. The lobster harvesters brought a strong-enough argument that the nonprofit did not accurately describe the fishers’ measures to mitigate the risk of right whale deaths caused by lobster fishing methods, especially compared to the risk to whales brought by other seafoods.