Appeals Court Hands Maine Lobstermen Major Victory in Whale Protection Case

Lobstermen unload lobsters caught in the Gulf of Maine at the Stonington Lobster Co-Op wharf in Stonington, Maine, on July 05, 2019. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) overstepped its authority with a plan for lobstermen to reduce the lines they place in the water by 98 percent within 10 years.

“It’s a huge win,” eighth-generation lobsterman Jason Joyce of Swans Island, Maine, told The Epoch Times.