GLOUCESTER, MA (March 23, 2009) – The herring industry is fighting back, seeking "friend of the court" status in a federal lawsuit aimed at keeping their boats out of areas closed to groundfishermen and pointing to the Pew Charitable Trust as the agent provocateur.
The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, representing the herring and midwater trawl and purse seine fishermen from Maine to New Jersey, filed for amicus status in the federal case on Thursday.
The Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, a group of groundfishermen in Port Clyde, Maine, initially sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to bar the big industrial herring boats — including those based in Gloucester — from the areas closed by the service to the groundfishing fleets.
Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full