November 7, 2013 — A Dorchester County judge has denied a watermen's group's bid to reopen Maryland's menhaden fishery, but ordered a trial scheduled next spring on how the Department of Natural Resources has imposed catch limits on the prized bait fish.
Circuit Court Judge David B. Mitchell refused in a hearing in Cambridge Wednesday to issue either a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against DNR's enforcement of regulations under which it curtailed the catch of menhaden at the end of June.
Burl Lewis and Larry "Boo" Powley, members of the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, had filed suit in October contending that DNR illegally reduced their allowable menhaden catch by prematurely declaring that Maryland fishermen had caught the state's quota of the fish.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission had ordered a 20 percent reduction in coastwide harvest this year of menhaden. The vast majority are caught by a Virginia-based fleet owned by Omega Protein, which processes them into animal feed and fish oil. The rest are caught for use as bait to catch crabs and other fish.
Maryland's reduced quota was 5.12 million pounds. DNR declared the state's menhaden fishery closed on June 29 after projecting, based on prior year's harvest reports, that the commercial catch had reached that ceiling. The watermen argue the overall catch at that time was nowhere near the limit.
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