Atlantic herring fishermen who lost their case in 2021 against the federal government regarding an at-sea monitoring program filed their opening brief late last week to an appellate court seeking to overturn the decision.
That brief, which was filed to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday, Jan. 28, claims Rhode Island U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Sullivan erred last year when she ruled the Magnuson-Stevens Act allowed the government to order the fishermen to cover the costs for monitors on their vessels.
The Commerce Department, NOAA, and NMFS “without statutory authority, created a new federal office and have imposed the cost of such on small, regulated businesses,” the brief states. “Not only has Congress failed to explicitly grant this authority to appellees, but in analogous cases, Congress has capped such costs well below those imposed here.”
Represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonpartisan civil rights group, the fishermen want a 2020 rule establishing the at-sea monitoring program set aside.
Read more:
https://www.nationalfisherman.com/northeast/atlantic-herring-fishermen-open-appeal-of-monitoring-case