March 23, 2017 — With the opening of the 2017 fishing season a little more than a month away, the city’s Fisheries Commission is set to meet Thursday night to discuss potential changes to the management plans for whiting and herring, as well as national marine monuments.
The commission, scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall, also will receive an update from J.J. Bartlett, executive director of the Fishing Partnership Support Services, on FPSS-sponsored events for the upcoming year.
The national marine monument discussion will center on the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., challenging the use of the Antiquities Act by former President Barack Obama to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument off the coast of southern New England in September 2016.
The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has signed on to the lawsuit as a lead plaintiff.
The suit names President Donald Trump, new Secretary of Commerce Wilbur J. Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke among the five defendants, but really sets its sights on Obama and his actions during the waning days of his presidency.