2 Montauk fishermen join in suit against federal rules

Two Montauk commercial fishermen have joined with New England fishery groups to sue federal regulators over new rules intended to help rebuild cod and flounder stocks.

"They didn't give you enough fish to catch," said Chuck Weimar, one of the two local captains in the suit, which was filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Boston. "We're basically going out of business."

At issue are rules that took effect May 1 that impose strict limits on the number of groundfish, or bottom-dwelling fish, that fishermen may catch.

The rules also set up a new system to manage the fishery. Previously, commercial boats were allowed to fish a certain number of days at sea, with limits imposed on how much fish they could bring back from a trip. The new regulations now also allow fishermen to form groups, or "sectors," that are allocated a certain amount of fish based on how much they caught in the past.

The lawsuit said the way the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration allocated those shares violates federal law because it favors some fishing groups over others. It said the new regulations would cost fishermen thousands of dollars and "unlawfully modify a centuries' old traditional way of life for the sake of an Agency's regulatory convenience, displacing fishermen, their communities and undermining cultural values."

NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said the agency was aware of the lawsuit and took it seriously. She said the rules were approved after a 14 to 1 vote by the New England Fishery Management Council, and "it will continue to be implemented."

The Council, which manages fisheries in federal waters off New England, approved the rules last year to try to bolster fish stocks that declined in the 1990s. Under federal law, those populations are supposed to be rebuilt by 2014, but an assessment in 2009 showed that 13 stocks were still overfished, said Maggie Mooney-Seus, a regional fisheries service spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"To keep complying with the law, the agency had to keep the stocks rebuilding. So regardless of whether it was sector management or days at sea, there was going to be a cut in fishing effort this year compared with 2009," said Mooney-Seus.

But Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said the agency set quotas based on inaccurate science that does not reflect the abundance of fish in the ocean.

The problem with the shares issued under the sector system is that "when they divvied up the pie, instead of giving slices they handed out crumbs," said Brady, whose husband, David Aripotch, is the other Long Island plaintiff in the suit. "What it will do is consolidate the fishery in the hands of those who have the deepest pockets."