Lobstermen say they will fight proposed federal rules that would require them to change the rope they use to connect lobster pots to prevent whale entanglements and were told this week their best ammunition is better data on whale sightings off the Maine coast.

In a meeting Monday evening that drew more than 40 lobstermen to Augusta, the commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources said the first step is to delay implementation of the new rules, which could go into effect as early as October of 2008.

"What we have to do is be smart," said DMR Commissioner George Lapointe. "We're gathering data as we speak. We need more time than October, 2008."

Asked what would happen if Maine lobstermen just refused to abide by the new rules, Lapointe said that wouldn't work.

"If we say we're just walking away from the table, they can do whatever they want," he said.

The rules put out by the National Marine Fisheries Service call for lobstermen fishing in areas where the North Atlantic right, humpback and fin whale swim and feed to replace floating lines used to connect lobster pots on the ocean floor with sinking line, which lies on the ocean bottom. The idea of sinking the line is to reduce the risk that whales will become entangled in floating rope and be injured or die.

Monday's meeting was the first in a series designed to get feedback from lobstermen in time to respond to the National Marine Fisheries Service by a Sept. 17 deadline. The Maine Lobstermen's Association is holding three public comment meetings next week in Saco, Rockland and Ellsworth.

Lobstermen say replacing all their lines will not only be initially expensive, but the rocky ocean bottom off the coast of Maine will fray the lines, requiring they be regularly replaced. There is also concern about fishing accidents if a frayed line snaps as it is being pulled in.

The Maine Lobstermen's Association is estimating the initial replacement costs at $15,000 per lobstermen and then there is an additional annual cost of $5,000 to $8,000 to replace all the lines that break and pots that are lost because of the rocky bottom. There are currently 5,800 commercial lobstermen licensed in Maine.

"You're going to literally wipe out a whole industry," said Mike Dassatt of Belfast, who said lobstermen in his area want to see pictures of the whales because they don't believe they're there.

Initially the federal government wanted the new rules on sinking rope to apply to all coastal waters in Maine, but the Department of Marine Resources, working with the Maine Lobster Advisory Board, argued instead for the fisheries service to draw a line restricting gear only in areas where whales have been frequently spotted. They used data going back over the last 30 years.

The federal government agreed and in proposed rules released earlier this month the exemption line is included. It exempts some areas close to shore, but others are hard hit, including parts of Downeast and the southern shore off Kittery. Lobstermen who fish around Maine's off-shore islands would also be subject to the new rules. So now the lobstermen as a group appear opposed to it.

"I don't believe the exemption line is workable," said David Cousens of South Thomaston, president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association. "We do not agree to it now."

Cousens said the lobstermen didn't have all the facts when they initially agreed to a compromise. They thought they had new type of rope that would work for them, but tests have proven it doesn't.

That puts the state in an awkward position since it argued for the exemption line on behalf of the lobstermen.

"It's the line we asked for," Lapointe said. "That puts us in a wicked spot."

Awkward, or not, the lobstermen gathered at Monday's meeting wanted to know what the state was going to do for them now to protect an industry that is important to Maine's economy.

"The conservation people would just as soon we didn't exist," said Jon Carter of Hulls Cove in Bar Harbor. "What's that going to do the state of Maine?" he asked, saying it was time the governor and the Legislature got involved.

"Is the DMR and the state set on this line because they picked it two years ago?" Cousens asked.

"We picked it," Lapointe shot back, referring to the joint decision by the state and the lobstermen. He reiterated the key issue now was to buy time to gather more data.

Several lobstermen in the meeting said whale watching cruises in their area are having to go father and farther out to see whales, proving that few are inshore or within the waters designated by the exemption line.

But Terry Stockwell of the Department of Marine Resources said anecdotal information isn't enough.

"If we just say we don't like the line, the environmental community is going to tear us apart," he said. "We need to challenge this line with data."

Data collected now on whale sightings, the durability of new kinds of rope and estimates on gear loss could also be useful if the law is challenged in court by environmental groups that want more stringent guidelines than those proposed.

"We want a judge to be horrified at what NMFS didn't look at," said Patrice McCarron, director of the Lobstermen's Association.

The association's public comment meetings next week will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 28 at Saco city hall; Aug. 29 at Rockland city hall; and Aug. 30 at the high school in Ellsworth.

"We need to get the guys there," said Lapointe. "We need to get the guys on the docks fired up."