NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — November 29, 2012 — A federal appeals court Wednesday swept aside a lawsuit by this city and Gloucester challenging the new system of regulating the Northeast fishery.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down every one of a number of arguments the cities and their co-plaintiffs in the industry made in their appeal.
The court upheld a 2011 lower court decision in the suit brought by the two ports as well as fishermen and fishing groups. Broadly speaking, the court ruled that the government stayed within the letter and spirit of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was designed to end overfishing in the Northeast.
Mayor Jon Mitchell said late Wednesday that he had not seen the ruling but was disappointed. "We'll take our time now to go through the opinion and see what our next steps are," he said.
"The point of pursuing the lawsuit was to help ensure that regulations that NOAA comes down with are fair and consider the very real ramifications that they might have on the fishing industry," Mitchell said.
"We will continue to make that point in other venues, including Congress," he said.
Former mayor Scott Lang said Wednesday night that he believes the city's arguments were valid and well presented. But he acknowledged that overturning government regulators' decisions is hard to do.
"It's extremely difficult to flip it in the courts," Lang said.
He added that he was pleased that the court at least took time in its more than 60-page ruling to sift through the arguments thoughtfully, if narrowly.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times