Tag Archives: Pacific Legal Foundation
Two East Coast Fishermen Sue Biden Administration Over Mid-Atlantic Fishing Restrictions
The lawsuit comes as legal challenges to the so-called administrative state, which is made up of officials who aren’t appointed by the president or subject to political accountability, become increasingly common. Raymond Lofstad of Hampton Bays, New York, and Gus Lovgren of Brick Township, New Jersey, are both fourth-generation commercial fishermen running small-scale operations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Lofstad has fished off Long Island for more than 45 years. Lovgren, who recently took over his father’s fishing boat, has operated out of New Jersey for more than 20 years. Both have the permits required to fish for flounder, scup, and black sea bass in federal waters in the Mid-Atlantic. >click to read< 13:29
How California bureaucrats are using a typo to destroy a fisherman’s dream
Bureaucrats sometimes make mistakes. But when they refuse to acknowledge a mistake and double down on it to deprive someone of their livelihood and family business, a lawsuit can be the only way to hold them accountable. That’s what happened to Max Williams, and he’s fighting back. Max has dreamed of captaining his own fishing vessel since he was young. Fishing has been the Williams family’s way of life for decades. They have owned and operated vessels practicing sustainable fishing off the coast of California to feed their community and provide for their family. Like his grandfather and parents before him, Max wants to continue the family tradition and captain his own boat. California law requires Max to obtain a “gillnet” permit from the government before he can legally fish as a vessel operator. > click to read < 17:46
Commercial fishermen sue over Cook Inlet closure
Commercial fishermen are going to court in an attempt to keep Cook Inlet open to salmon fishing. That’s following a controversial decision by the feds to close a large swath of Upper Cook Inlet that’s long been managed by the state and is an important area for drift gillnet permit holders. The decision to close the federal Cook Inlet salmon fishery was approved by the feds last week but was first proposed last December by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which sets policy in Alaska’s federal waters. >click to read< 08:08
“Sea Otters To End West Coast Fishing” Huh! fishermen need to suck it up and “find another job?
For decades, Julie Packard has spearheaded a campaign to curtail fishing under the guise of “conservation.” As this campaign has evolved, it has become a tale of precaution. The campaign started as a need to save the sea otter. Did otters really need “saving?” That is entirely debatable, and was, extensively. The result was clearly non-scientific and summarized as a “choice” between fishing or sea otters. Friends Of The Sea Otter shill Steve Schmeck was quoted saying fishermen need to suck it up and “find another job.” The California urchin divers took issue and were represented by Pacific Legal Foundation in litigation. USFWS cited inability to manage the otter population. The result was USFWS having zero oversight and getting away with lying and breaking the law.,,, Fast forward to today: The Monterey Bay Aquarium & Julie Packard have infiltrated the government and the economic chain. The money, influence and placement of persons in nonprofits, universities and government positions has created an oligarchy and a serious ethics problem. This is a big read with links and information from California Sea Urchin Diver Jeff Crumley. > Click to read< 22:01
The President vetoed a bill that would have decimated family fisheries and the ocean
Thanks to a last-minute veto by President Donald Trump on January 1, dozens of American family fishing businesses will be saved from going out of business, and the ocean ecosystem will be better protected—both of which were being threatened by a bill that was more rhetoric than science. In mid-December, Congress passed S. 906, the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act. The legislation would have phased out the use of drift gillnets, the only proven commercially viable way to catch swordfish, and would have effectively closed the West Coast swordfish fishery. This comes amidst particular uncertainty for fishermen in the region, who were already facing daunting challenges. >click to read< 09:15
Courts Need To Stop Presidents From Calling Oceans ‘National Monuments’ To Illegally Put Them Off-Limits
In Lewis Carroll’s classic “Through the Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty says to the befuddled protagonist, Alice, “When I use a word … it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross, a pending cert petition filed by my colleagues at Pacific Legal Foundation, asks the justices to resolve a curious circuit court split to clarify that the ocean is not land, up is not down, and words have meaning. In 2016, President Barack Obama made one such designation: 3.2 million acres of the Atlantic Ocean south of Cape Cod, beyond our nation’s territorial waters. How Did We Get Here? >click to read< 09:45, Where are we headed? The ocean under Biden -“Big picture, a return to science on how we approach the ocean and ocean policy,,, Early steps include naming John Kerry as a cabinet-level climate czar and pledging to reenter the Paris Climate Accord that he signed. Climate change,,, >click to read< 09:56
Blue collar fishermen deserve to make a living, not persecution from weak minded politicians and wealthy enviros
Austen Brown started fishing commercially with his father off California’s coast when he was only 8 years old. By the time he was 13, Austen was making his own living as a fisherman, and he has spent the past few decades fishing for everything from codfish to shark. But perhaps his favorite target is the elusive swordfish.,, The swordfish is also a favorite catch for Chris Williams, who has spent more than 40 years plying his commercial fishing trade off the California coast, including targeting swordfish with drift gillnets. Tragically, California’s drift gillnet ban comes at the expense of the fishermen and their families who will be put out of business for no good reason. Video, >click to read< 08:34
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument showdown reaches high court
The Obama administration exceeded its authority in 2016 when it designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and cut off access to key fisheries, attorneys for the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association and other groups argued in their petition filed with the Supreme Court yesterday. A recent move by the Trump administration to preserve the monument but dissolve fishing restrictions has not erased the need for the high court to consider the case, the groups wrote. Those rollbacks are now subject to a separate lawsuit launched by environmental groups. >click to read< 12:28
Pacific Legal Foundation: Lawsuits filed to preserve swordfish industry and livelihoods
Swordfish is one of the most popular types of seafood. It is also a primary source of income for Chris and Dania Williams and a way of life for their entire family. Chris has been a swordfisherman for decades, and husband and wife have been selling their fresh catch at their Ventura market for nearly a decade. Chris is among approximately 20 active swordfish permit-holders in the state, many of whom also have run small, family-owned businesses,, California recently passed a law to phase out the remaining permits for swordfish, or drift gillnets, which are the only viable method for commercial swordfishing. This would end swordfishing in the state, even though federal regulations clearly allow the practice. more >click to read< 14:12
Fishery groups sue to get rid of Obama‘s New England ocean monument
We posted an article that wasn’t true, and we need to set the record straight – >click to read< 09:19
A coalition of commercial fishing groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to challenge the creation of a national monument off the coast of New England. President Barack Obama created the monument in September using executive authority under the Antiquities Act. The monument is called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, and it is made up of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains. >click to read< 17:37
Bureaucrats’ power on trial in California wildlife dispute
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched a program in Southern California to reintroduce an otter population, imposing penalties for encroaching on the animal’s habitat, Congress passed a law to protect the fishing industry. Federal officials, however, want to penalize fisherman who accidentally encroach on the otters, and now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide how much power those bureaucrats possess. The case, California Sea Urchin Commission v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife, stems from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan in 1986 to widen the territory supporting the otter population. >click to read<09:45
The High-Stakes Battle Over Obama’s Atlantic Ocean National Monument
Mining and drilling for oil are already banned in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, established by former president Barack Obama in 2016 as the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Within five years, too, all commercial fishing will be phased out – or, at least that was the plan. A federal judge is now weighing the fate of those protections in a lawsuit originally filed in March 2017 by a coalition of New England fishing groups – and it has led to a rare case of President Donald Trump defending his predecessor’s authority. >click to read<10:27
Obama Banned Fishing In 5,000 Square Miles Of Rich Ocean — Fishermen Want It Back
A Washington, D.C., district court lifted a stay Wednesday on a fishing industry lawsuit to reverse a 5,000 square mile marine national monument created off New England’s coast in 2016. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument will ban fishing in an area roughly the size of Connecticut in less than a decade. Seafood and fishing trade groups are suing to rescind the monument former President Barack Obama crafted near the end of his 2nd term, to restore an area of ocean that has been an important source of lobster and fish for decades, according to the lawsuit. >click to read<18:29
Storm brews over Maine’s monument offshore, too
Zinke has recommended that the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument – a 4,913-square-mile area of underwater canyons, thousand-year-old coral forests, and volcanic mountains on and beyond the southern edge of Georges Bank at the mouth of the Gulf of Maine – be opened to commercial fishing, a move proponents say would defeat its purpose.,, The heads of eight of the nation’s fisheries management councils – the industry-led bodies that implement fisheries regulations in federal waters – were already on record against the commercial fishing restrictions.,, Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental attorney who is watching the case closely, strongly disagrees. click here to read the story 08:35
If Trump Doesn’t Revoke ‘Illegal’ National Monument Created By Obama, The Courts Might
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recommended President Donald Trump change the boundaries or management of 10 national monuments, including ocean monuments created by the Obama administration. Zinke asked Trump to allow commercial fishing at Obama-designated ocean monuments in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, but five of those monuments the Department of the Interior reviewed could be declared unlawful. Earlier this year, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed suit against the Trump administration on behalf of New England fisherman opposed to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument off the New England coast. click here to read the story 14:03
The Fate Of The 1st Atlantic Marine Monument Is Likely Headed To Court
Environmentalists and fishing groups said Thursday they are prepared for a legal battle in the wake of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to preserve the nation’s first Atlantic Ocean marine monument.,,, The Atlantic monument has been contested from the beginning. Some fishing groups have said it was created through an illegal use of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and jeopardizes their industry, and they’ve sued to challenge its creation. “I’m sure fishermen will appreciate any relief they get from the administration, but unless the monument is revoked it won’t cure the legal problem that we highlight in the lawsuit,” said Jonathan Wood, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the fishing groups. click here to read the story 16:01
The Latest: New England groups want fishing rights back – Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance president Richard Fuka says he hopes U.S. demand for locally harvested seafood convinced U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to recommend reopening the area to fishing. Fishing groups said they were encouraged by Zinke stating that his recommendations would “provide a much needed change for the local communities who border and rely on these lands for hunting and fishing.” click here to read the story 20:16
Is the ocean ‘land owned or controlled’ by feds? Antiquities Act lawsuit aims to find out
Despite a lifetime of fishing off the New England coast, Eric Reid was like a fish out of water when President Barack Obama grabbed a piece of his livelihood. “I’m just a fish guy but I learned a lot about politics in a big hurry,” said Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside Inc., a seafood processing facility in Rhode Island. He is referring to Obama’s September 2016 designation of nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument, using his unilateral authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906.,,, We’re losing opportunity as we speak,” Reid told Watchdog.org. “It could easily be millions of dollars just this winter.” Reid is part of a coalition of New England fishing organizations suing the federal government over the designation. The Pacific Legal Foundation is representing the coalition in Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross. PLF attorney Jonathan Wood says the economic impact is magnified when considering the shoreside businesses that have grown up around the commercial fishing industry. “It’s not just the fishermen. It’s all the bait dealers, the mechanics and the marinas and all the businesses that only exist because there’s a commercial fishing industry,” he told Watchdog.org. read the article here 09:37
New England fishermen challenge Obama’s Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument designation
A coalition of New England fishermen organizations filed suit today over former President Barack Obama’s designation of a vast area of ocean as a national monument — a dictate that could sink commercial fishing in New England. The organizations filing the lawsuit are the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Rhode Island Fisherman’s Alliance, and Garden State Seafood Association. They are represented, free of charge, by Pacific Legal Foundation, a watchdog organization that litigates nationwide for limited government, property rights, and a balanced approach to environmental regulations. The lawsuit challenges President Obama’s September 15, 2016, creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. continue reading the story here 14:28
Fishermen’s Lawsuit Revived for Abalone Protection
This lawsuit is about Eco-Based Management in the purest sense. Overruling a trial court, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [Tuesday] reinstated 
lawsuit to protect abalone and other shellfish resources — and the industries dependent on them — from being ravaged by sea otters in the waters off the Southern California coast. The lawsuit — California Sea Urchin Commission, et al. v. Jacobson, et. al. — targets the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for illegally eliminating a “sea otter management zone” (i.e., a zone of protection for shellfish off the Southern California coast) which Congress established under a 1986 statute. PLF attorneys represent fishermen, a California state commission, and several nonprofit organizations with a direct interest in maintaining healthy populations of shellfish. In challenging the Service’s violation of its legal mandate to contain the sea otter population, PLF attorneys represent: The California Sea Urchin Commission, California Abalone Association, California Lobster and Trap Fishermen’s Association, Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara. Read the rest here 20:35
Pacific Legal Foundation making news on the east coast by fulfilling its mandate
Meanwhile, just across the Potomac River from Alexandria, the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C., heard oral argument today in the case of John Yates v. United States. PLF filed its amicus brief on behalf of several commercial fishing associations earlier this year. “Sort of inexplicably, the federal government decided to turn a regulatory minor fine into a federal prosecution involving a law for white-collar criminals.” Read the rest here 11:40
Filed on behalf of Fishermen, Pacific Legal Foundation Sea Otter Lawsuit Dismissed
“Obviously, we think the judge’s decision is wrong,” said PLF attorney Jonathan Wood, whose sole option, as detailed by the judge, is to pursue an Administrative Procedure Act petition to rescind relevant parts of the 1987 rule. “Since the dismissal took place so recently, the fishermen are still considering their options to appeal.” Read more here independent.com 18:25
The Endangered Species Act Turns 40—Hold the Applause – Schiff and MacDonald – Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
The badly administered law has had a limited effect on wildlife while inflicting great social and economic costs. Forty years ago, on Dec. 28, 1973, the Endangered Species Act became law. If you want to celebrate, you’ll need to close your eyes to hard truths. Read more @facebook.com 16:26
An otter mess – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Defies Congress and the law, The Otter Project announced they will be filing papers to intervene
“They’re seeing their commercial interests take precedent over everything else and I don’t believe that,” said Steve Shimek, executive director of The Otter Project. “I don’t believe the immediacy they’re portraying. They’re portraying mongrel hordes of otters are waiting in the line to eat all ‘their’ urchins and that is not the way it is.” more@vcreporter
