(The Center Square) — A conservative legal group is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling allowing the government to charge New England commercial fishermen for the cost of boat monitors.
In a legal brief filed with the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the New Civil Liberties Alliance asks the three-judge panel to prevent the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from enforcing an “unlawful” regulation requiring Atlantic herring fisherman to pay for the cost of federal monitors to observe their catch.
The legal fight stems from a 2024 ruling by the U.S. Supreme that overturned the so-called “Chevron doctrine,” a decades-old administrative law principle that directs courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation when regulations or policies are unclear.
The principle stems from the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, in which the justices said courts should defer to an agency in “ambiguous situations” as long as its interpretation of a law is “reasonable.”
The high court’s ruling stemmed from lawsuits filed by Atlantic herring fishermen in New Jersey and Rhode Island who challenged a fee requirement. Lower courts used the Chevron decision to uphold a 2020 National Marine Fisheries Service rule that herring fishermen needed to pay for federal government-mandated observers who track their fish hauls.
The federal agency claims the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and regional fisheries management programs require vessels to “carry” observers to collect data on fish stocks.
But lawyers for the alliance say Congress never gave authority to set the requirements. They want the appeals court to strike down the monitoring rules, based on the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling.
The group’s lawyers said the federal monitoring rules will force Atlantic herring fishery fishermen to pay more than $700 per day to contractors, or about 20% of their pay.
“Forcing fishermen to pay the salaries of government regulators watching them conduct their work is backward,” Kara Rollins, the NCLA’s senior litigation counsel, said in a statement. “The regulation unlawfully places the government’s financial responsibilities onto the governed and without congressional authorization.”
The harvest of Atlantic herring, which is typically used as food and bait, is a major fishery on the East Coast, with 11 million pounds of landings in New England, New York and New Jersey valued at $6.6 million last year.
But NOAA cites data showing the species is overfished and has set tight catch quotas in recent years that fishermen say have considerably shrunken the yearly haul.
