Commercial fishing companies, trade groups and seaport communities in four US states asked a court to stop the federal government from auctioning off the rights to develop an offshore windfarm in the Atlantic Ocean between New York and New Jersey, reports renews.

The petition, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington D.C., said the plan to build as many as 194 turbines in a 127-square-mile section would hurt fishermen who now fish the area for scallops, squid and fish such as summer flounder, mackerel, black sea bass and monkfish.

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