May 31, 2013 — Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing federal fishing regulators to block new rules that New England fishermen say will kill the local industry.Coakley announced the suit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at a news conference Thursday.
“These new regulations will be a death sentence for the Massachusetts fishing industry as we know it,” Coakley said.
The proposed change would reduce fishing limits within NOAA’s quota-based “catch shares” system by up to 77 percent. In her complaint, Coakley states that this number is not based on sound scientific reasoning or the most recent numbers available regarding local aquatic life.
Coakley says NOAA’s proposed changes would violate standards established up by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal law that regulates the fishing industry.
Vito Calomo, a third-generation fishing captain from Gloucester and vice chairman of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, praised Coakley’s decision, saying it is high time that someone stood up to NOAA.
Read the full story at the Patriot Ledger