August 29, 2014 — State attorney general candidate Maura Healey is pledging that, if elected, she would not hesitate to initiate legal action against NOAA if it doesn’t employ a “balanced regulatory approach and proven scientific methods” when calculating stock assessments and catch limits, or fails to consider the economic impact of its actions on fishing communities.
Healey’s pledge is one element of a five-point plan to support the fishing industry and fishing communities released Thursday in advance of the Sept. 9 Democratic primary in which she is opposed by state Sen. Warren Tolman.
In that regard, Healey’s plan closely mirrors Coakley’s rationale for the failed lawsuit Massachusetts filed against NOAA in May 2013 in U.S. District Court.
That suit, which charged NOAA failed to utilize the best science available for stock assessments when instituting drastic cuts to groundfish catch limits and failed to consider the adverse economic implications of its decisions, was thrown out by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns in April.
Stearns’ summary judgment on behalf of NOAA said Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which joined the suit as an intervening plaintiff, failed to make a convincing case in any of their challenges to the methodology and accuracy of the science employed to develop stock assessments.
Healey said Thursday that the deadline for any appeal of the ruling has passed, but that she would re-assess the merits of renewing a legal challenge against NOAA’s policies if she is elected to office.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times