PORTLAND, Maine (AP) An organization that represents Maine’s lobster fishermen is pulling support of a proposed plan to protect endangered whales.

The subject of right whale conservation has been a major source of contention in Maine’s lobster fishery. There are only about 400 of the whales, which are prone to entanglement in fishing gear.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association says it’s taken a closer reading of the science behind the plan, which a federal team recommended in April. Association executive director Patrice McCarron says federal data show the lobster fishery’s, in fact, “the least significant cause of right whale serious injury or mortality.”

Adoption of the plan is likely to result in reduction of lobster fishing lines in the water. McCarron says it would put too much of the onus on the lobster industry.