Federal Judge accepted the Consent Decree the way it was written.
A federal judge accepted a proposed consent decree controlling five sovereign Michigan Tribes, the federal government and the state, overruling evidence that expanded gillnetting would negatively impact the Great Lakes.
In handing down his order, Judge Paul Maloney rejected the Coalition to Protect Michigan Resource’s claim that biological harm is likely to happen to the resource and there will not be proper measures in place to mitigate that harm.
Gillnetting in Michigan was banned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources during the 1970s after research concluded gillnets are non-selective and have disastrous consequences for fishery populations. The Tribes asserted their treaty right to fish with gillnets, and after several court cases and injunctions, the first Great Lakes Consent Decree was adopted in 1985. Read more from MUCC and CPMR here
