BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Gov. Deval L. Patrick protesting the federal government’s catch-share fishing regulations on Thursday.
Coakley and Patrick charge that federal fisheries regulations annual catch limits, in effect since May 1, are “unreasonably low” and fail to consider “the economic and social impacts on commercial fishermen and fishing communities.”
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“We will not stand idly by while our fishing families in the Commonwealth pay the price for a regulatory change that was poorly thought through and poorly implemented,” said Patrick in a news release.
“The court needs to understand that neither science nor fairness justifies the regulations now imposing great hardship on the many small fishing operations in Massachusetts that need that relief now,” he continued.
The “amicus” brief, calling for higher annual catch limits, supports a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford against U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.
Coakley said the ACLs could be increased by up to 30 percent for most species, and more for some others, based on a report developed by senior staff at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and scientists at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology.
The amicus brief argues that Amendment 16, the Northeast Multi-Species Fishery, violates several national standards established under the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Management Act, alleging the Secretary did not follow the “best scientific information available” and did not ensure the limits allowed for “optimum yield.”
