A lawsuit filed by members of the fishing industry led the Supreme Court to overturn the Chevron deference. The decision will now limit long-standing government overreach in various industries. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
In a landmark ruling last week, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, stripping federal agencies of what had become increasingly unilateral power to interpret and enforce policies without checks and balances. The ruling was a result of a lawsuit relentless incorporated versus commerce department involving government overreach in the fishing industry. In this episode, we talk with the founder of an influential Fisherman's Association who filed an amicus brief in that case about what he says is a long pattern of government intrusion that's destroying whole industries. I'm daily wire editor in Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, July 6, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. Have you ever heard of a data broker? They're the middleman collecting and selling all those digital footprints you leave online. You might be surprised to learn that some data brokers are not just selling your information to advertisers but to organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS. So protect your online privacy today by visiting expressvpn.com/wire, that's eXPRESVPN.com/wire and you can get the extra three months free, expressvpn.com/wire today. Joining us now is Jerry Lehman, New England Fisherman's Stewardship Association founder and CEO who filed an amicus brief in the case that ended up overturning Chevron deference. Jerry, welcome. First, tell us if you would about your background. How long have you been in the fishing industry? I was raised in Harpsoil, Maine by a commercial fishing family, lobstering and ground fishing, seining, urching, scalloping, shrimping, back on the state of Maine had it. I've been in all the fisheries. I've spent, since 2000, I spent 23 years at sea fishing 220, 240 days a year, multi-species trawlin. I've been networked in all the major fishing ports here, Portland, Maine, Gloucester, Boston, Mass, New Bedford, Mass and I've covered a lot of the region's territory. In terms of progress and decline, what have you seen in this industry that you've spent decades working in? I've been seeing decline steadily since 2000. We don't even see new participants really getting into the fisheries. We've moved the goalposts too far and now with these restrictions and quotas, now you're forcing people to buy fish in order to catch fish and the problem is the price that you pay to catch a fish is less than the market value once you've retrieved it. Most times I go, when you go to buy leaf quota, you're only buying it just for the sake of keeping the vessel active. You're not actually making any financial gain. If anything, it's a financial burden. Now this brings us to the case in which you filed an Amicus brief, relentless, incorporated versus commerce department. It's now the case that overturned Chevron deference. It came in response to a new federal law requiring government observers on fishing vessels. What sparked your involvement in the case? Well, it's just been watching what's been taking place over the years and now that we're pushing for fishing vessels to pay for observers aboard our vessels, which if you do the breakdown, now they're going to account for the fisheries to pay more towards observers than we're actually paying our crews, which does not make for a viable business. So this really was a question of whether or not you can actually keep business open if this policy were to be enacted. This was a fisheries killer. So what was the thinking from the government here that this would actually be viable? It's just more overreach and overwatch. I mean, we have less fishermen every year and yet now we want 100% coverage. It's like, well, we haven't even broken any rules or laws. So why are we having to pay to have somebody watch us around the clock? I mean, our arguments were pretty easy. It was, I mean, looking how many truck drivers are in America? How would we feel if we put an observer and then made those truck drivers to pay to feed those observers, maintain them, babysit, and pay them more than what they're paying their crews? It was preposterous. Is this part of a pattern that you've seen from the Commerce Department related to the fishing industry? Oh, this is something that's been taking place for quite a while now. And this is a good first step in the right direction in a long time. You said first step. Are there some other things that you believe need to be overruled or overturned in terms of policies? I think that some of these policies that have been dictated to the fisheries didn't have logical excuse as far as the economics of the fisheries viability, which has been detrimental. I mean, if you talk to fishermen and recreational fishermen up and down the coast, nobody seems to see a problem in our biomass. But yet our surveys that keep coming back are depleting our allowable catches. And then on top of that, they're requesting us to pay for observers. I mean, these are people that come straight from college, little to no experience at sea. And here in New England, we have variable weather. I mean, it's not very nice out there in the winter months. So now you have somebody that doesn't even know if they get seasick, trapped on a vessel with us for 10 days. And now it's our responsibility to monitor them and to keep them safe. It was a lot of overreach. Yeah. What do you think the role of the federal government should be with the fishing industry? Well, I mean, we're a big part of our food securities. I mean, up here in New England, this has been a major part of this country's food banks. And now we're removing it from the populace. I mean, 94% of the product is now consumed is foreign product. So why are we restricting us harvesters from providing wild, local, heart-healthy product that's environmentally friendly and sustainable? And meanwhile, we're purchasing product from other nations that do not abide by our rules and regulations. This has been something that's been going on for a while. And now we have less fishermen than we had in colonial days. And this was just one more further step in pretty much cutting the throats of the entire fishing fleet. What do you hope to see in the coming years from both the federal government and state governments? How can they help the industry thrive again? Well, a lot of it has to do with the data that we receive. I mean, it would be good to have knowledgeable fishermen who have spent their entire lives decades at sea using these equipment to garner the best data available using the science teams. So this guess on modeling based on multiple surveys would be more accurate, which will allow us to develop better marketing strategies, put together working fisheries educational to be applied to the future. I mean, right now we teach fisheries management in college, we don't teach fisheries. What do you mean by that? That we don't teach fisheries? Well, we teach how fishing management works based on surveys, allocations and statistical committees. But as far as using trawl gear, migrational patterns of our stocks and how to harvest these things responsible and sustainably, mending is a big part of trawling. We don't really teach that as well. We have no educational classes of getting fundamental, educated employees to get the job done safely in a manageably environmentally friendly way. So what's the solution there? Who should provide that education? It's going to have to be from the fisheries that are pre-existing. And right now we have an aging of the fleet. So we're on a ticking time bomb as far as passing that knowledge for the next generation. That has been my forefront of my arguments. It's like, well, you only know what you know and how do you know it? The fishermen that came before us learned from the fishermen in their region based on time and effort. And that's something that has been passed down through families and multiple vessels and skippers to their mates who passed that knowledge over time and effort to their mates. And that's how collectively we moved along and advanced ourselves. But now we have so very few people left and we don't teach these things. I mean, back in the '80s and '90s, a lot of schools used to offer programs with marine trades and that's something that went away, what, 25 years ago. And now what we're left with is a crippled fleet. Final question. Do you have hope that this industry, the fishing industry will bounce back? I think there is time to still salvage that knowledge and pass it on to the next generation, which will go back to the food securities of this nation. I mean, it's one thing to say we have it, but we have to be able to harvest it to provide it to the U.S. consumer and to do so in a responsible, sustainably way so this way our food securities of the nations are here for the longevity. Well, Jerry, thank you so much for talking with us and taking the steps you did to protect your industry. Thank you very much. That was Jerry Lehman of the New England Fisherman's Stewardship Association and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire. Our friends over at Legacy Box offer a simple and safe solution for digitizing all your memories. Do you know where that old box of home movies is? Have you checked to make sure it isn't in an environment that's too hot or too damp? All of that old media breaks down over time and if not preserved will be lost forever. 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A lawsuit filed by members of the fishing industry led the Supreme Court to overturn the Chevron deference. The decision will now limit long-standing government overreach in various industries. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
