Guest Post by Kassy Dillon
WASHINGTON, D.C. — New England fishermen hope to catch a victory this year at the nation’s highest court in a case over government overreach, a decision they believe will determine the fate of America’s oldest industry.
In two cases at the Supreme Court this week, fishermen contend that it is a Constitutional violation for them to be mandated to pay government officials to join their fishing voyages — the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) mandates that a human monitor is present on all expeditions.
“It was like $780 a day for a monitor,” Jerry Leeman, a longtime Maine fisherman, told The Daily Wire outside the Supreme Court. “I can’t even afford sometimes to pay my crew $780 a day, but we’re paying monitors.”
Leeman, who is from Harpswell, Maine, and founded the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, said that the crew is also expected to pay for the food for monitors who he believes aren’t sufficiently trained for the dangerous job he does for a living…
…
Read the rest of the story at The Daily Wire, here.
Kassy Dillon is an opinion journalist and political commentator who specializes in foreign policy. She has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Middle Eastern Studies from Mount Holyoke College and a master’s degree in public policy specializing in international relations and American politics from Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
To read more about the federal overreach impacting our fishing industry, click here.
To read more about east coast green policy, click here.