Appeals Court Hands Maine Lobstermen Major Victory in Whale Protection Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) overstepped its authority with a plan for lobstermen to reduce the lines they place in the water by 98 percent within ten years.
“It’s a huge win,” eighth-generation lobsterman Jason Joyce of Swans Island, Maine, told The Epoch Times.
The lobstermen said the policy plan set an unrealistic standard. In addition, they say there is no reliable data that Maine lobstermen are hurting whales.
Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) policy director Patrice McCarron echoed Joyce’s sentiments in a June 16 press release, the day the decision was issued….