CAMBRIDGE, Md. — May 30, 2014 — It's been a long road for Capt. Boo Powley, chairman of the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, a group that filed a lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
You may remember back in October, the coalition's lawsuit claimed the state had unfairly, and with no scientific evidence, cut the quotas on the menhaden fishery at the request of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. They say that Virginia, which houses the company "Omega" that catches the fish in bulk, got 80 percent of the Atlantic quota, and Maryland only received 1.3 percent.
Wednesday's trial in itself was a ten and a half hour long ordeal for Powley, but in the end, he wasn't even able to argue his point.
"The merits of the case weren't even heard. There was no professional testimony by any scientist on how many menhaden are in the bay. We just lost on a technicality. It's hard to lose because paperwork wasn't filed soon enough." said Powley.