Liskow represents commercial fishermen, vessel owners, fishing associations, and seafood businesses in regulatory challenges, NOAA enforcement and penalty matters, vessel casualties, crew claims, and transactions. We work from New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s highest-grossing commercial fishing port, with the support of one of the country’s largest maritime groups and an established environmental regulatory practice.
Overview
Commercial fishing is a closely regulated business. A vessel may answer to NOAA Fisheries, the Coast Guard, and one or more state agencies, and a single rule change can decide whether a season or a business is viable. Our fisheries practice handles that regulatory work and the other legal needs of a fishing business: penalty defense, casualty response, crew claims and agreements, vessel transactions, co-packing agreements, and insurance.
Our lawyers serve as general counsel to fishing advocacy groups and represent individual fishermen, fleet owners, and shoreside businesses across commercial fisheries, including the lobster, Jonah crab, and scallop fisheries.
Challenges to Federal and State Regulation
We represent fishermen, fishing associations, and vessel owners in challenges to fishery regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In Maine Lobstermen’s Association v. National Marine Fisheries Service, in which our lawyers represented the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, the D.C. Circuit held that the agency may not rely on worst-case scenarios or pessimistic assumptions when assessing a fishery’s effects on an endangered species. In Rhode Island, our lawyers obtained a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, and administrative stay barring the State from enforcing a rule that required federal lobster and Jonah crab vessels to use a vessel monitoring system.
We also advise associations and their members before a rule becomes final, when comments and the administrative record can still shape the outcome and will frame any later challenge.
We defend Endangered Species Act claims brought by private litigants, including claims against shipping companies. Our lawyers also obtained a pre-filing injunction requiring a litigant to seek court approval before filing any future action against a fishing association or its officers and employees.
NOAA Enforcement and Penalty Defense
We represent fishermen, vessel owners, and fishing businesses in NOAA civil penalty matters. A Notice of Violation and Assessment calls for a prompt response, and it may come with a proposed permit sanction that matters more to the business than the fine. We evaluate the charge, the evidence, and the penalty calculation, and we negotiate with NOAA’s enforcement attorneys or contest the case before an administrative law judge as the facts warrant.
A penalty also raises the question of who ultimately pays it. In John & Jane, LLC v. Isabel, our lawyers obtained summary judgment enforcing a master’s indemnification agreement and holding that a NOAA civil administrative assessment was a “penalty” that triggered the master’s contractual indemnity obligation.
Casualties, Crew Claims, and Limitation of Liability
When a fishing vessel is involved in a collision, fire, or other casualty, we work with the owner from the initial response through investigation, litigation, and resolution. Liskow’s casualty lawyers are on call 24 hours a day.
We defend Jones Act personal injury, unseaworthiness, maintenance and cure, and lay-share wage claims, and we bring limitation of liability proceedings for fishing vessel owners. Our lawyers have also enforced the arbitration clause in a crew contract, compelling a seaman to arbitrate Jones Act personal injury and related claims under an agreement signed before the voyage.
Crew Agreements
Vessels, Permits, and Financing
\We handle the purchase, sale, financing, chartering, and documentation of fishing vessels. We also represent owners, lenders, and suppliers in maritime lien, vessel arrest, and possessory actions, including disputes that reach a vessel’s fishing permits.
Shoreside Businesses and Insurance
We draft and negotiate co-packing agreements between seafood processors and the companies whose products they process and pack. These agreements set product specifications and yields, assign responsibility for food safety and labeling compliance, and allocate the risk of product loss, recalls, and insurance.
We advise fishing and seafood businesses on marine and property coverage and handle coverage disputes. In Hanover Insurance Group v. Raw Seafoods, the Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed summary judgment for the insurer and held that the insured, a seafood processor represented by one of our lawyers, had a reasonable expectation of proving that damage to scallops at its facility was an occurrence under its policy.
Our Team and Reach
A member of the fisheries team is a Proctor in Admiralty, serves on the Fisheries Committee of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, and received the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association’s Legal Keeper Award in 2023. The fisheries team works alongside Liskow’s maritime casualty and environmental regulatory lawyers. Clients have one firm for a rule challenge, a penalty case, and a casualty.
