PORT CLYDE, ME (February 27, 2009) – As the result of a conference call on Feb. 23 between EarthJustice attorneys Roger Fleming and Stephen Roady, acting on behalf of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s representative Lawson Fite of the U.S. Department of Justice, plans have been finalized for a lawsuit between the parties.
Fleming said Friday that other efforts to stop the activities of midwater herring trawlers in the region have been unsuccessful, and on Feb. 25 the Fishermen’s Association’s attorneys notified the court that they intend to litigate the case.
A little over a year ago, the Fishermen’s Association filed a complaint against U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging "the failure on the part of the defendants … to comply with the overfishing, rebuilding and bycatch requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act."
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