April 8, 2014 — There was mixed reaction today from environmental advocates following a couple of recent decisions by a federal judge regarding New England's groundfishing industry. The decisions – issued Friday by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg – were in response to two lawsuits introduced last year by the Conservation Law Foundation, or CLF, and Earthjustice – both environmental law firms. Tom Porter explains.
Greg Cunningham is a senior attorney with the CLF. He says one of Judge Boasberg's rulings upholds a federal law designed to prevent overfishing of New England cod, haddock, flounders and other groundfish.
"Our goal is to achieve rebuilding of those stocks that are currently overfished and to avoid overfishing of stocks that aren't at this juncture," Cunningham says.
The judge ruled that regulators at the National Marine Fisheries Service were effectively allowing harvesters to potentially exceed their scientifically-recommended catch limits by adding on a so-called "carry-over" quota of uncaught fish from the previous year.
In his ruling, Judge Boasberg said this procedure "resulted in catch limits above the statutorily permissable levels."
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