SavingSeaFood - New suit targets need for catch-share 'referendum'

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New suit targets need for catch-share 'referendum'

In its haste to convert the groundfishery of the northwest Atlantic into a catch share commodities market, the government ignored a statutory requirement to hold a referendum among participants in the New England fishery, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

And federal regulators committed an unconstitutional confiscation of property by opting to use admittedly erroneous catch histories in allocating the resource,

The suit, entered for New Jersey fisherman James Lovgren by suburban Philadelphia attorney Patrick Flanigan, was originally filed last May in U.S. District Court in Camden, N.J.

But it was been transferred to U.S. District Court in Boston and paired for a consolidated hearing with the higher-profile catch-share legal challenge filed by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford and a large cohort of industry interests from Maine to North Carolina.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

HASTINGS: Time to improve the Endangered Species Act

May 18, 2012 - When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon, he spoke about the importance of preserving “the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” I believe that goal is as important today as it was back then. However, after nearly 40 years, it’s time to take a fresh, honest look at the law and consider whether there are ways it could be improved to do a better job of protecting and recovering species.

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