BOSTON — May 31, 2013— Representing the entire elected political leadership of Massachusetts, Attorney General Martha Coakley Thursday filed suit in U.S. District Court against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to block NOAA’s month-old commercial fishing restrictions, describing them as a “death penalty” for an industry which has been fishing legally and responsibly for years while successive waves of resource protection dragged the industry into an economic “disaster.”
Along with Rick Sullivan, Gov. Deval Patrick’s secretary of energy and economic affairs, state Sen. Bruce Tarr and state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Coakley made it clear that, while the named defendants in the suit were three acting officials — the “acting” Secretary of Commerce, the “acting” under secretary of NOAA and the “acting assistant” administrator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service — the impetus for the suit was a persistent cold shoulder given by the White House to the state’s political leadership, which has taken turns appealing for a balanced and legal policy of fisheries regulation.
In April, the governor made a futile appeal to Valerie Jarrett, a special assistant to President Obama, for disaster relief and an executive action to overrule the decision of NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard to institute draconian cutbacks in landings, including the 78 percent cut in cod limits.
Bullard has described the restrictions as the inevitable “day of reckoning.” But the New England Fishery Management Council, a policy advisory arm of NOAA with state and stakeholder members, voted 16-1 with only Bullard opposed for lesser cutbacks that still would reduce overfishing. Members of Congress and the largest industry group in the region, the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, also argued that the Magnuson Act allowed Bullard to ease the hardship during a one year “interim” action. Yet Bullard, who has the authority to do so, still imposed the dire cuts.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times