Fishing industry advocates who filled a Boston courtroom in March, hoping to persuade a federal judge to strike down new rules that set catch limits, got a blunt message from an opposing lawyer: If they really want change, they’re in the wrong building, he said.
“They need to take that up with Congress,’’ Department of Justice lawyer James Maysonett told US District Judge Rya Zobel.
Last month, Zobel ruled against the industry, leaving it little choice but to follow Maysonett’s advice and try to change fishery law though legislation in Washington.
It won’t come easy. Amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act will be a massive undertaking with uncertain prospects. Fishermen have recent legislative wins and backing from high-profile lawmakers from Massachusetts, Representative Barney Frank and Senators John F. Kerry and Scott Brown. But that political pull is diluted by a legislative process requiring support from inland-states lawmakers little influenced by the fishing industry.
Read the complete story by The AP at The Boston Globe.