New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte and Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against the United States Secretary of Commerce challenging a rule limiting the ability to fish in the Gulf of Maine.

Under current regulations, fishing vessels are allotted a limited number of days-at-sea during which they can fish. The new rule, called “Framework 42,” will count every day spent fishing in the inshore Gulf of Maine off of New Hampshire’s coast, as two days. This restriction is likely to have devastating effects on New Hampshire fishing communities causing the loss of jobs, reducing income, and irreversibly damaging New Hampshire’s shoreside infrastructure. For New Hampshire fishermen, many of whom have smaller boats, this will also cause serious safety risks by encouraging fishermen to fisher harder, for longer hours and in questionable weather, beyond the capability of their vessels and crews.

Other measures, such as a management regime put in place eighteen months ago, would provide better protection for the key species in need of protection (cod and yellowtail flounder) over a much broader area. If not enjoined, the new measures will actually result in the targeting of the species it purports to protect, because the cut in days at sea will force fishermen to target the species having the greatest value at the market, including Gulf of Maine cod. vThe suit claims that Framework 42 discriminates unfairly against New Hampshire’s fishing communities and those like them in Massachusetts, the historic heart of America’s fishing industry. The rule will cut fishing revenues in half with impacts to New Hampshire communities two to three times harsher than those in other parts of the fishery not affected by the new rule.

“We are greatly concerned about the health of the fishery but this rule unfairly and disproportionately harms fishermen in New Hampshire while failing to adequately protect the species involved,” said Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.

For further information, contact Allen Brooks at (603) 271-3679.