The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, a group representing midwater trawl and purse seine fishermen from Maine to New Jersey, is seeking Amicus Curiae, or “Friend of the Court”, status in a lawsuit brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the US Department of Commerce. Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, has filed the suit on behalf of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association, based in Port Clyde, Maine.
According to the suit NMFS was alleged violating the law in denying a petition to prohibit fishing vessels engaged in midwater trawling for herring from fishing in areas closed to groundfishing. In filing its request for Amicus status in the case, attorneys for the Sustainable Fisheries Coalition noted that the Coalition has “a vital stake” in the outcome of the litigation, and that “the thrust of the plaintiffs’ case is that by-catch in the herring fishery is an urgent problem that had not been properly dealt with by the Council and NMFS.”
Eldon Greenberg, an attorney for the Coalition, informed that when NMFS approved midwater trawling in groundfish closed areas, the agency determined that the activity would not have a biologically significant impact on recovering groundfish stocks. Greenberg also told that bycatch of haddock in the Georges Bank area last autumn was permitted under NMFS guidelines. Fisheries scientists have determined that haddock are a fully-recovered species, and the herring fishery is authorized to catch up to 542,000 pounds, or 0.2 percent, of the Total Allowable Catch for haddock, which currently stands at 271 million pounds.
