Law

A federal judge stepped back yesterday from his decision to override National Marine Fisheries Service regulatory policies, reinstating the harsh cutback in fishing effort in the eastern Gulf of Maine that he had suspended in January.

U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington granted NMFS’ motion to dismiss a civil case brought by the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire; they argued a 2006 regulatory scheme known as Framework 42 was illegal and too restrictive.

"While we are certainly pleased to hear the news," said NMFS’ regional administrator Patricia Kurkul, "we’re eager to move forward working closely with the New England Fishery Management Council, the fishing industry and others on development of new management approaches that will provide more flexibility to the industry and finish the job of rebuilding groundfish resources."

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Times.

In a victory for federal fisheries regulators, Framework 42 groundfishing regulations that were suspended in January are back in place until the end of the month when a new rule takes effect.

Senior judge Edward F. Harrington reinstated the double-counting system — which charges fishermen two days of fishing for each day they fish in certain waters — in a court order issued Friday. The order relates to a federal lawsuit filed against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in November 2006.

Harrington wrote in the order that Framework 42 is back in place because NOAA Fisheries Service, one of the defendants, has complied with earlier court orders by "seriously considering and analyzing" a special provision known as the mixed-stock exception. The provision allows overfishing on a stock so that fishermen can harvest healthier stocks that swim in the same area.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

The New England Fishery Management Councilstuck by its guns and those of two member states yesterday, advising afederal judge that federal regulators had failed to follow his order toconsider a holistic approach to managing the fishery.

The council vote was 12-4-1 against the National Marine Fisheries Service,with Patricia Kurkul, the regional administrator, who contributed tothe hour-long debate only in a monosyllabic "no," one of the four votesagainst the motion by David Pierce,the deputy director of marine fisheries for the state ofMassachusetts. He, along with Dave Goethel, a New Hampshire fisherman,carried the motion with a message for U.S. Judge Edward Harrington.

Goethel insistedsomething large and important is in dispute. To him, Kurkul’s refusalto see a place for the so-called "mixed-stock exception" in fisherymanagement policy is a sign of a continued commitment to "singlespecies management," which he argued was never the intent of Congressand will only "lead to the ruination of the fishery."

He, as well as Dave Prebble, a Rhode Island fisherman, cited a legal brief against NMFS’ position filed by fishing industry attorney Stephen Ouellette of Gloucester, and said he believes that what Congress wants is "ecosystem management."

Inhis January opinion, Harrington found that NMFS had given only "lipservice" to the mixed-stock exception regulatory scheme, which wouldallow some overfishingof minor stocks in order to get the optimal yield from the fishery ingeneral. NMFS’ current regulations are all based on the recovery of theweakest of the stocks; the mixed-stock exception would give fishermenaccess to more of the stocks that have shown recovery.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times.

The leatherback turtle — at 1,200 pounds, the world’s heaviest reptile — is in such severe decline that it could become extinct in the Pacific Ocean within a few decades, according to Oceana, an environmental group seeking emergency protections for it and the other five species of sea turtle.

Of particular concern is the plight of the leatherback, which grows to a length of 5 feet and migrates about 6,000 miles each year from nesting beaches in Papua New Guinea and other Pacific islands to the coastal waters of California and Oregon to feed on jellyfish.

"We are pushing Congress to enact comprehensive sea turtle legislation as soon as possible," said Elizabeth Griffin, Oceana’s marine wildlife scientist and fisheries campaign manager. "One big problem is residential and commercial development of its nesting beaches. Another is that leatherbacks are getting caught in commercial fishing gear: nets, hooks and fishing line."

Read the complete story at Los Angeles Times.

A finding by the nation’s former top fishing official that tote tags and tally sheets are legal records and the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction falsified them in 2004 to sell an extra 75 pounds of cod was upheld yesterday.

But Jane Lubchenco, the nation’s newly installed top official for oceans and fisheries, also upheld an administrative judge’s finding that the penalties sought by the National Marine Fisheries Service were excessive.

Lubchenco agreed with the November 2008 finding of Administrative Law Judge Michael Devine that the auction, the dominant platform for the sale of fish in the region’s No. 2 volume port, should be fined $10,000 and forced to close for 20 days "spread out over one year."

NMFS, which in February filed a new and far broader set of charges against the auction, had sought a $120,000 fine and a 90-day closing for the mislabeling in the cod case.

Read the complete story at Gloucester Times.

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 24, 2009) – A day boat-owning commercial fisherman was notified yesterday by the National Marine Fisheries Service that he faces a $49,703 fine for repeatedly selling illegally caught yellowtail flounder through the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction in 2004 and 2005.

Mark Carroll, who owns and fishes the Harvest Moon, is the second commercial fisherman charged by NMFS in recent days. He is unlikely to be the last.

His attorney, Stephen Ouellette, said Carroll declined to comment, but Ouellette described the charges as trumped up from "a simple misunderstanding of complex regulatory requirements."

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 12, 2009) – To the editor: I often wonder what people think reading these articles about the fishing industry.

You really have to be involved to fully understand the magnitude, and how unjust, government has been to fishermen — and we now have violations against one of the icon families that have been in the business for over 50 years being targeted for alleged violations.

This Ciulla family is one that goes back for generations as fishermen and now on the landing side of the forum, creating jobs, a place to take out fish. The Seafood Auction is where it all starts — where buyers buy, where truckers carry to different buyers, where fishcutters are employed to cut the fish, and so on and so on.

Read the letter-to-the-editor in the Gloucester Daily Times

 

GLOUCESTER, MA (March 23, 2009) – The herring industry is fighting back, seeking "friend of the court" status in a federal lawsuit aimed at keeping their boats out of areas closed to groundfishermen and pointing to the Pew Charitable Trust as the agent provocateur.

The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, representing the herring and midwater trawl and purse seine fishermen from Maine to New Jersey, filed for amicus status in the federal case on Thursday.

The Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, a group of groundfishermen in Port Clyde, Maine, initially sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to bar the big industrial herring boats — including those based in Gloucester — from the areas closed by the service to the groundfishing fleets.

Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full

 

WASHINGTON, DC (March 11, 2009) – The final rule was recently published in the Federal Register to comply with the court-ordered Framework 42 suspension. This is NOT the interim rule. This "final rule" complies with what was ordered in the court ruling.

View the official Federal Register publication in full [PDF]

 

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (March 12, 2009) – Three environmental groups said Thursday they intend to sue the federal government over claims it violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to meet a deadline to complete reviews of rare sea turtles.

The Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity, Washington, D.C.-based Oceana and the Turtle Island Restoration Network in the San Francisco Bay area claim the National Marine Fisheries Service did not meet a 12-month deadline to complete the research after receiving petitions in 2007 seeking reviews of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles.

The groups, which want greater federal protections for the turtles, said they filed 60-day notices of intent to sue Thursday.

Read the Associated Press story in full