The U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (MBAF) regarding a defamation lawsuit launched against it by the Maine lobster industry.
Several members of the Maine lobster industry – including Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc., owned by Gerry Cushman, a sixth-generation fisherman from Port Clyde, Maine, U.S.A. – along with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) sued the MBAF over the foundation’s “red” listing of lobster.
The red rating came amid the Maine lobster industry grappling with lawsuits and court decisions related to its potential impacts on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The right whale issue flared up in 2020 when U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rules governing the lobster fishery were inadequate to meet Marine Mammal Protection Act standards. The NMFS then introduced new rules, which the same judge found were inadequate again in 2022.
Amid the court battle, the industry scored a reprieve thanks to a last-minute rider on a federal omnibus funding budget in 2022 but still had to face organizations like the MBAF downgrading lobster’s sustainability rating.
The lobster industry’s lawsuit claims MBAF’s choice to reduce lobster’s rating to red defamed the industry and caused economic hardship and damage to the Maine lobster brand.
The MBAF filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit soon after it was filed, but in a 137-page ruling in February, U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock decided in favor of the industry and the MLA, denying the effort to dismiss the lawsuit.
Soon after, MBAF filed an appeal on the denial, which has subsequently been granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on interlocutory grounds. As the new interlocutory appeal winds its way through the courts, Woodcock issued a separate ruling granting a stay on the original defamation case until the Court of Appeals makes its decision.
Attorney Kevin Lipson, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case, told SeafoodSource the latest court proceedings are not related to any decisions on the merit of the defamation suit and are entirely procedural questions before the court.
“This is a debate about which forum should hear the case and hear the case on these highly procedural issues, not on the merits,” Lipson said.
Lipson said the lobster industry is arguing the case should be heard before the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, while the MBAF’s legal team is arguing the case should be heard under First Amendment issues and that it should not be certified to the Maine court and remain with the First Circuit.
MBAF submitted its latest argument on 2 October, and with the ongoing stay on the case, the merits of the defamation suit have not yet been addressed and discovery has not yet started, Lipson said.
“Hopefully, in the perspective of the Maine fishermen, even if the first circuit hears the case, they rule in favor,” he said. “We would then proceed in discovery and move toward trial.”
Lipson said the MLA is committed to pursuing the case to its conclusion.
