– Suit alleges NOAA failed to analyze impacts on communities
– Sector plan costs called a regulatory burden that will force consolidation
– City of Gloucester reviewing court filing; may join suit
The City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation's largest fishing port in terms of the value of catch landed, together with nine additional plaintiffs including businesses, associations, and individuals representing fishing interests in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, has filed suit in the United States District Court, Massachusetts District against the Secretary of Commerce and the Administrator of NOAA.
The complaint was filed on Sunday, May 9, 2010.
Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk told Saving Seafood that the City of Gloucester, Massachusetts received a copy of the complaint and it is being reviewed by Gloucester City Solicitor Suzanne Egan. The Mayor is "looking to her recommendation" in order to determine whether Gloucester will joint the suit.
The plaintiffs allege that their interests have been adversely affected by Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan.
The plaintiffs state that the Multispecies fishery consist of a number of interrelated stocks, including cod, haddock, pollock, redfish and flounders, caught in the waters off of the east coast of the United States. The fishery has existed since the 1600s and was the primary historical fishery on the East Coast that led to the settlement of New England. It has been undergoing extensive rebuilding since 1994, and has substantially recovered.
According to the plaintiffs, the Sector Plan imposes requirements as well as costs and expense that are so extensive as to require expenditure of as much as $17,000 to $27,000 per vessel (in a fishery where gross landings per vessel are approximately $130,000) and create an atmosphere so hostile, fishing operations will be unable to continue and achieve any substantial yield. As a result it is anticipated that the regulatory burden force the fleet to consolidate, and reduce its numbers from 600 current active vessels (down from 1,400 in 1994) to as few as 100-200 vessels, forever altering the economies of coastal communities.
The plaintiffs allege that Amendment 16 created an allocation scheme which gave preferential treatment to two groups, in violation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The plaintiffs state that Defendants failed to adequately disclose and evaluate environmental impacts of the program, including redirection of disenfranchised fishing effort to other fish stocks, and failed to adequately analyze impacts on the affected small businesses, fishing and coastal communities and other possible ways to mitigate costs and regulatory burden associated with Amendment 16.
The Complaint states:
"This is a challenge to regulations implementing Amendment 16 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (the MFMP), promulgated on April 9, 2010, by the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the NOAA administrator. Plaintiffs are the City of New Bedford and fishermen and fishing related businesses adversely affected by these regulations. Plaintiffs contend that these regulations violate various provisions of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA), the United States Constitution and other statutes, as noted below. Plaintiffs request that this matter be advanced for hearing at the earliest opportunity pursuant to 16 USC sec. 1855 (f)(4) and will move accordingly."
"The plaintiffs are The City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen's Association, Paul Theriault, Chuck Weimer, David Aripotch, Tempest Fisheries, Grace Fishing, Inc., Richard Grachek, Roanoke Fish Co., Inc. & the American Alliance of Fishermen and Their Communities.
The defendants are The Honorable Gary W. Locke, Secretary of Commerce, and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
The plaintiffs attorneys are Stephen M. Ouellette of Gloucester, and Pamela Lafreniere of New Bedford.
The plaintiffs are primarily fishermen and fishing boat owners, who make their living fishing in the waters of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone on the eastern shores of the United States, or business financially dependent on the said fisheries, all of whom have been adversely affected by governmental action. The City of New Bedford is a municipality dependent on the fishery whose economy, culture and citizenry are adversely affected by Amendment 16.”
Read the Amendment 16 Complaint as filed in the U.S. District Court