Judge Denies Watermen Menhaden Madness

Judge denies watermen's motion

Judge David B. Mitchell denied a motion on Wednesday, Nov. 6, made by watermen to grant preliminary injunctive relief of menhaden regulations passed down by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The plaintiffs, Burl Lewis and Larry “Boo” Powely, who are associated with the Harvesters Land and Sea Coalition, had to prove a likelihood they would succeed in court. They also had to prove there would be irreparable harm to the watermen and the public if the motion wasn’t granted.

Though Mitchell said the plaintiffs could have a likelihood of succeeding in the case, he said proving there would be irreparable harm is where “the plaintiffs’ efforts fall short of the standard.” At this time, Mitchell said, the plaintiffs could not prove that.

Just what are the restrictions that the watermen find to be such burden that they will cause irreparable harm?

The plaintiffs are alleging that DNR illegally set the menhaden regulations by not following proper procedure.

The regulations restricted Maryland watermen to collectively harvesting 5.12 million pounds of menhaden this year. The regulations also set a bycatch allowance once the total allowable catch was reached. The bycatch allowance was set at a 6,000 pound limit per licensee per day and a 12,000 pound limit per day for each vessel with two bycatch licensees fishing on it.

"Bycatch" allowance over and above the annual quota of 6,000 lbs per license per day, and up to 12,000 lbs per boat?   Looking around, bycatch is defined by NOAA as :

So these are tons of menhaden caught and killed by gear set to catch other fish, that will simply be dumped, dead.