WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 2, 2014 — In 2013 the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to postpone taking any action on river herring and shad management through amendment 15 to the Council’s squid, mackerel and butterfish plan for three years. The Council approved as an interim measure the formation of “an ad hoc interagency working group” to study the issue. The vote was 10 to 9.
Having decided that herring and shad management should be added to the squid, mackerel and butterfish plan, “fishing organizations based in New York and New Jersey; the owner of an eco-tours and fishing business in Tinton Falls, New Jersey” brought suit. The plaintiffs were represented by Earthjustice (Earthjustice has received well over $20 million dollars from the Pew Charitable Trusts). Claiming that the Council’s prudent decision adopting an interim measure which would allow a thorough examination of the issue was improper, the plaintiffs seemed to rely to a great extent on the fact that thirty plus thousand comments were received supporting their position and only one, from Garden State Seafood Association, opposed it.
The Defendant, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (the National Marine fisheries Service is in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which is in the Department of Commerce) moved to have the suit dismissed and Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler so ordered.
Judge Kessler's decision is available here