Roger Fleming is involved seeking to ban herring trawlers from critical fishing grounds. The public interest law firm Earthjustice filed the complaint on behalf of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association. According to Earthjustice the lawsuit seeks to close a loophole allowing industrial herring midwater trawlers to fish in designated groundfish-closed areas.
It has been identified that the areas are spawning grounds and sanctuaries for cod, haddock, and other groundfish stocks and are currently off-limits to nearly all other fishing vessels. Glen Libby of Port Clyde, a commercial fisherman and chairman of the
Midcoast Fishermen’s Association., said that the small fishermen in New England have made sacrifices to preserve a livelihood for future generations. But the current rules are undermining our hard work.
Earthjustice informed that the mid-water trawlers drag massive small-mesh nets behind them, sometimes working in pairs towing an even bigger net between them. Stretching to 165 feet, these vessels can hold more than one million pounds of catch. Initially the mid waters trawlers were banned from groundfish-closed areas in 1994 but in 1998 the deferral regulators re-opened it based on assumption that the herring ships would catch little or no groundfish in their nets.
