PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Lawyers for a commercial fisherman who was once prosecuted for taking too many lobsters challenged regulations on using nets to catch the crustaceans Monday in federal court.

Attorneys for Stephen Medeiros argued that the rule limiting non-trap fishermen to catch 100 lobsters per day or 500 per trip of five or more days is unconstitutional.

They said the regulation unfair because those who catch lobsters in traps don’t face the same limits.

“This is a case about allocation of the lobster resource, not conservation,” said Amy Stratton, who represents Medeiros.

Lawyers for the state Department of Environmental Management and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which drew up the regulation, argued that lobsters are overfished.

The state and fisheries commission are also regulating lobster trappers, restricting them to 800 traps each, they said.

“This is an effort to reduce the (lobstering) effort across the board,” said Gary Powers, who represents DEM.

The state and fisheries commission also argued that states including Maine and New York prohibit catching lobsters with nets and those regulations have been upheld.

Judge Mary Lisi took the motions for summary judgment under advisement and said she will issue a written ruling.

Richard Humphrey, who also represents Medeiros, said there is evidence that the state is being forced into imposing a regulation it does not support.

He said a letter from the DEM to the National Marine Fisheries Service helped motivate the lawsuit. In the letter, Jan Reitsma, director of the DEM, wrote that the state had readopted the regulation to bring Rhode Island into compliance with the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster.

“We remain convinced, however, that the regulation is inappropriate for application in Rhode Island waters,” Reitsma wrote in the Dec. 5, 2000 letter.

Powers did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment on the letter.

Robert Morris, a commercial fisherman based in Newport who came to watch Monday’s arguments, said the regulation is unfair even though it only affects fishermen using nets during the few weeks a year when they could catch more than a hundred lobsters per day.

Morris said the problem is it’s one more regulation for fishermen to follow.

“We have so many rules and regulations now that we’re being put out of business in so many ways,” said Morris, who’s been fishing for 30 years.

Medeiros was charged with a misdemeanor in 1999 for having 131 lobsters. A Superior Court judge dismissed the case.

John Sorlien, a lobster fisherman who uses traps, said regulating lobster catches is critical, but this rule may be unfair to those commercial fishermen using nets.

The trap limits are set high enough that they have no real effect on that side of the lobster fishing industry, said Sorlien, who is part of the Area Two Professional Lobsterman’s Alliance.

AP-ES-07-28-03 1650EDT

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