NEW BEDFORD — April 12, 2014 — Another lawsuit challenging NOAA Fisheries' rulemaking has been thrown out of federal court, this time in Boston.
Judge Richard G. Stearns of the Massachusetts federal district court dismissed state Attorney General Martha Coakley's 2013 challenge to the cod quotas. Fishermen say they are so low that they have wiped out their ability to catch other species of fish while getting cod as bycatch.
Coakley issued a statement expressing disappointment with the decision.
"There is no question in my mind that our fishing communities have been subject to over-burdensome regulations and overzealous enforcement by the federal government," she said. "We will continue to fight for our fishing communities. We are reviewing our options for appeal in this case."
Coakley took aim at the scientific data used by NOAA fisheries to set the allocations, charging that NOAA rejected an industry offer to conduct surveys that might have been at odds with NOAA's official findings.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times