New England fishermen fighting ‘government overreach’ hope to catch a big win at Supreme Court

In a David versus Goliath matchup, the Supreme Court will hear a set of arguments on Wednesday over a Commerce Department regulation, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that could sink the fishing industry in the United Sates.

Last year a group of fishermen from New Jersey petitioned the Supreme Court to consider their lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Commerce Department that imposed a federal regulation requiring their boats to pay roughly $700 a day to fund the salary of a human “at-sea” monitor for each expedition to ensure compliance of fishing laws.

At the heart of their arguments before the high court is what’s called the Chevron doctrine, established in 1984 by a case called Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

In that case, the Supreme Court said that if a federal rule is challenged in court, the court should give deference to the agency and its “reasonable” interpretation of a congressional statute it argues granted them permission to create the rule. 

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A fisherman sorts cod and haddock while fishing off the coast of New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

The fishermen will argue that the at-sea monitor payment mandate violates Article 1 of the Constitution and that the court should overturn Chevron, an outcome that would significantly change the legal landscape for the administrative state. 

But for the fishermen, many of whom are stewards of 4th and 5th generation small family businesses, a legal victory would mean securing their livelihoods they feel have been on the brink. 

“It’s pretty much unfathomable,” Jerry Leman, founder of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), told Fox News Digital in an interview, speaking of the financial burden on the boats for at-sea monitors.

NEFSA is a bipartisan, non-profit alliance of fishermen off the coast of New England fighting to limit erroneous government regulations. 

“We’ve never really had a say,” Aaron Williams, captain of the F/V Tradition in Stonington, Connecticut said of the mandate. “It would just be nice to have our voices heard.” 

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Crew members aboard a boat sailing in coastal Maine waters bring in a buoy that marks the start of their gillnet fishing lines. In a gillnet fishing boat, fishers haul their catch of monkfish, pollock, and cod from early morning until late at night.  (Mailee Osten-Tan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On top of the burdensome costs, the fishermen argue that the at-sea monitors are not required to have any specific marine education and are given minimal training prior to boarding their vessel. Some, having never been on a boat previously, often suffer seasicknessand  record faulty information, according to the fishermen.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed a similar lawsuit in which the Supreme Court will also hear Wednesday morning, representing fishing companies Relentless Inc., Huntress Inc., and Seafreeze Fleet LLC, the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen seafood on the East Coast. 

“The people of New England famously rebelled against George III because he ‘erected’ ‘New Offices and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass’ them ‘and eat out their substance,’” NCLA states in its legal filing. 

The group says their clients “have revived cause for similar grievance by promulgating a regulation that requires at-sea monitors to be paid for by the very fishing vessels forced to carry them.”

In both cases, the fishermen argue that the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs marine fisheries, allows for federal monitoring, but must do so on the government’s dime. It does not give agencies an allowance to charge fishermen for the cost of monitors. 

NCLA argues in its brief that when NOAA asked Congress to appropriate funds for the at-sea monitors, those funds were denied – further cementing the notion that NOAA is out of its bounds set by the Congressional branch.

Meghan Lapp, a fisheries management expert at the Center for Sustainable Fisheries notes that an economic impact analysis on companies like Relentless showed that the at-sea monitors cost cut into 20% of the fishermen’s income. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Lapp noted that the fishing industry –the country’s oldest industry – is also the 8th most regulated industry in the country. Without the additional at-sea monitors NOAA put in place, there are already systems in place that trace boat speed, collecting biological samples, stock assessments, among other things. 

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The Supreme Court is seen Wednesday, June 29, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Lapp also argued that if the fishing industry “continues to get put out of business by government overreach” through programs like the at-sea monitor payment mandate, it could have a negative impact on the environment worldwide.

“[If] your only other option for seafood is imports… what people have to understand is that by doing that, you’re actually creating an environmental issue,” said Lapp. “The United States has the highest environmental standards of any country in the world when it comes to fisheries. So our wild harvested seafood is the most sustainable seafood that you’re going to find on the planet.”

“If you’re going to put our fishermen out of business, then you’re going to be purchasing seafood from countries with little or no regulation. So the environmental impact of relying on imports rather than U.S.- caught product, it’s actually more damaging to the environment,” Lapp says.

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The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the two cases, Relentless v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.

Leman says that he hopes the Supreme Court rules their way so New England fishermen can keep their business afloat. 

“Most of us…are multigeneration fishermen. These are fisheries that were passed down from generations, in our home town, to us. I have not yet met a fisherman that wants to kill the last fish. I mean, what would we do tomorrow?” Leman said.