October 29, 2024
Portland, Maine – The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) appeared in a Portland federal court today to defend hardworking fishermen from an unconstitutional regulatory body that menaces their businesses and heritage.
The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) wields vast power over the fate of commercial fishing in five New England states. But its members are rogue bureaucrats, appointed improperly and answerable to no one.
As NEFSA explains in its motion for summary judgment, the eight regional management councils established in the Magnuson-Stevens Act are the chief policymakers for U.S. fisheries. Despite their far-reaching authority, their members are not appointed by the president or alternatively by a cabinet secretary, as the Constitution requires. Stranger still, some members sit on the councils by virtue of their position as state bureaucrats or thanks to substantial input from state governors. Finally, council members cannot be removed at will, even by the president.
“These Frankenstein commissions violate our Constitution,” said James Burnham, lead counsel for NEFSA. “By vesting state officials with federal power and insulating council members from accountability, the fishery management councils make a mess of representative government, creating unaccountable regulators who answer to well-connected insiders rather than the democratic process. The people lose whenever constitutional principles are disregarded, as the hardworking fishermen of New England have learned firsthand.”
In recent years, the NEFMC has crafted punishing regulations that threaten the continued viability of New England’s iconic commercial fishing fleet. For example, the council has slashed herring quota for several consecutive seasons, culminating in an astonishing 90 percent reduction in September. These merciless cuts have left herring seiners in agony. Many are wondering how they will provide for their families.
“Fishing is a multigenerational trade, but many of us are pushing our children away from the fisheries,” said NEFSA CEO and former vessel captain Jerry Leeman. “Overregulation is taking the prosperity and the joy out of fishing. Fishermen are losing their businesses and their heritage.”