The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts and an array of fishing interests have sued the U.S. Commerce Secretary and the administrator of NOAA in U.S. District Court, calling new groundfishing regulations both illegal and unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed Sunday, the last allowable day, and on Monday the city of Gloucester joined the lawsuit after reviewing it.
The lawsuit alleges that in imposing sector management and catch shares on the Northeast fishery, the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which "requires the agency to assess the impact of regulatory actions on the environment, including the human environment."
"The agency failed "» to comply with NEPA and to assess alternatives for mitigating (the) negative impact of Amendment 16 on the human environment," the suit said.
"Defendants' actions will permanently and unlawfully modify a centuries-old, traditional way of life for the sake of an agency's regulatory convenience, displacing fishermen, their communities and undermining cultural values in a manner inconsistent with the applicable law."
Mayor Scott W. Lang, meanwhile, on Monday sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke endorsing the appeal of the region's congressional delegation for larger catch allocations, so the sectors management won't slowly bankrupt the boats and shrink the fleet by more than half.
In his letter, Lang encouraged Locke to use his scheduled Wednesday meeting with the delegation to exercise his secretarial authority to raise the catch limits to the amount allowable under the existing science.
Lang also reminded Locke of the complaint that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, led by Jane Lubchenco, illegally ignored Section 8 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which requires an analysis of proposed regulations' effects on the economy of the fishing industry and fishing ports.
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