Call it Red Lobster’s revenge.

Nearly eight years to the month after the national seafood chain fled the Twin Cities because of lagging sales, Red Lobster has returned from the briny depths of memory to cause financial headaches for Maine’s signature fishery.

At issue are langostinos, distant Chilean cousins of Maine’s native Homarus Americanus, being sold as lobster at chain seafood restaurants like Red Lobster. And while no self-respecting New Englander would likely buy a bug at such a place, this seafood bait-and-switch is of grave concern.

The Maine Lobster Promotion Council estimates Maine haulers have lost $44 million since April to langostinos, ever since the federal Food and Drug Administration allowed langostinos to be sold as “langostino lobsters” to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against a California chain.

“This has absolutely lessened demand,” said Kristen Millar, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council. Boat prices for lobsters dropped because of the langostino competition, Millar said, as chains such as Red Lobster and Long John Silver’s reduced wholesale purchases of Maine lobster.

Sen. Olympia Snowe has now asked the FDA to remove this designation as falsity in advertising, as well as polluting consumer appetite for real – read Maine – lobster. In a letter to FDA chief Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, the senator also expressed concern for consumer health in regard to seafood allergies.

It’s here that the argument against langostinos goes too far. There are 37 species designated by the FDA as a “lobster,” with names ranging from the comical to the surreal. Next to the American Lobster are, for example, the Japanese Fan Lobster, the Flathead Locust Lobster and the rare Urugavian Lobster.

No single species – or state – owns the title of “real lobster,” and waging this argument on scientific terms is asking for trouble. This debate is not about claws and carapaces but dollars and cents, and the financial havoc that an undercutting competitor could wreak on Maine’s lucrative lobster industry.

It’s here the argument for reclassifying the langostino is strongest.

Maine’s lobster fishery exemplifies what’s right with a natural-resource based industry. It’s thrived in hard times, is self-managed though zone councils and territoriality and, although tension between harvesters and scientists is evergreen, both collaborate because they recognize it’s best for the fishery.

The fishery needs to be protected from incursions, not only because it’s one of Maine’s largest economic bases, but also because it’s something that Mainers do better than anybody else.

Snowe’s effort on behalf of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council should be applauded, and the FDA should reconsider its shortsighted reclassification. While langostinos are technically of the lobster family, allowing their shady marketing does more harm than good, especially in Maine.

And if a restaurant wants to serve the cheaper langostino, let them, as long as the difference is clearly identified to the consumer. Not that what Red Lobster serves should concern those in L-A, anyway.

The nearest one is in Queensbury, N.Y., about 180 miles away.