BOSTON, MA – July 1, 2011 — In a ruling Thursday by the Massachusetts District Court in a lawsuit by the City of New Bedford and others challenging the legality of the fishing regulations known as Amendment 16 , Judge Rya Zobel denied the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment in the case. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) intervened in the case in September 2010 on the side of the Federal government. CLF’s motion and the government’s motion for summary judgment were allowed, terminating the case. In response, CLF issued the following statement.
“We are pleased with Judge Zobel’s ruling affirming that Amendment 16 was properly developed and approved by the New England Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service and that the new fishery management plan was fully consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel for CLF. “The ruling affirms that the extensive and very public plan development process, which involved all of the fishing interests, was fair, rational and legal. The plaintiffs turned to the Court to express their dissatisfaction with the new fishing rules, but they had a weak case both factually and as a legal matter. More than 50 thousand pages of documentation informed the approval of the new rules, and they were fully debated and were adopted virtually unanimously by state fisheries regulators and fisheries representatives on the Council, including the Massachusetts representatives. With that distraction behind us and a full fishing year under the new rules to learn from, it is our hope that all interested parties will now work diligently and collaboratively through the Council process—not the judicial or political processes–to improve Amendment 16 for Massachusetts and all fishermen and build on the successes we have seen thus far from Amendment 16.”
The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) protects New England’s environment for the benefit of all people. Using the law, science and the market, CLF creates solutions that preserve natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy region-wide. Founded in 1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.