Gulf of Maine fishermen are looking to appeal a federal judge’s reversal of an exclusion zone that keeps herring mid-water trawlers 12 miles offshore.
The March 4 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston could reopen some Northeast waters to mid-water herring trawlers, reversing the 2019 rule change that shut them out of a broad swath of the nearshore Atlantic from Long Island to the Canadian border.
“I’m urging everyone I can find in federal management, joined by allies who supported our effort, to appeal,” wrote John Pappalardo, executive director of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, in the group’s online newsletter.
In November 2019 the National Marine Fisheries Service approved a measure by the New England Fishery Management Council to create an exclusion zone for mid-water trawling 12 miles offshore – with a bump out to 20 miles east of Cape Cod.
The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, representing trawl operators, brought their appeal soon after to the federal court, arguing the New England council’s science advisors could not identify adverse impacts, and that trawling critics brought more influence to bear on the council and NMFS…