March 27, 2014 — A federal ruling has been handed down that the U.S. government violated the law by failing to properly manage the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper fishery.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled favorably on all five counts for 21 plaintiffs comprised of commercial fishermen in a lawsuit against Penny Sue Pritzker, acting in the official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
In the ruling the court agreed that the persistent overharvesting by the recreational fishing sector in recent years has harmed all stakeholders in the fishery, including commercial and recreational fishermen and fishing communities, and deprived consumers of access to fresh fish.
Lack of Accountability by Recreational
The plaintiffs argued that the National Marine Fisheries Services violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law governing federal fisheries, by failing to implement sufficient accountability measures to ensure that the recreational fishing sector adheres to its annual fishing quota.
The decision also found that the lack of accountability measures in the recreational sector caused a de facto reallocation of the red snapper fishery from the commercial sector to the recreational sector in violation of statutory and regulatory requirements.
“We are very excited that the judge agreed with us on all counts,” said one of the plaintiffs in the case, David Krebs, president of Florida’s Ariel Seafood and a Gulf Seafood Institute board member. “For years recreational fishermen have been frustrated, it is past time to fix their recreational accountability problems. The Gulf Council has continued failed them.”
Inadequate controls have permitted the recreational sector to routinely catch far more red snapper than it is allocated under the fishery management plan.