Saving Seafood

Law

Judge dismisses lawsuit that opposed halibut bycatch regulations

November 25, 2024 — In a recent decision, the United States District Court in Alaska ruled against a Seattle-based fishing trade group, Groundfish Forum, which challenged new federal rules affecting new limits on halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The National Marine Fisheries Service developed the regulations after a 2021 recommendation by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to limit bycatch from the groundfish fleet. Proponents say the limits protect halibut populations from the trawl group, which accounts for more than half of the halibut bycatch in the area.

Groundfish Forum, which represents a group of large trawl catcher-processors, filed a suit to stop those limits. They said the rules change the way halibut bycatch is managed, tying the cap to the abundance of halibut in the area: when halibut populations are high, the cap stays steady. But if populations dip, the cap goes down, by as much as 35%.

The fishing group said this puts an unfair burden on their sector, while other fisheries in the region aren’t facing the same constraints. They also said the proposed cap is unrealistic because it’s too strict to implement, which they claim violates conservation laws.

Read the full article at KUCB

Judge dismisses case against the state of Maine challenging lobster boat tracking rules

November 22, 2024 — A federal judge has ruled against a group of five lobstermen that sued the state in attempt to stop electronic boat tracking requirements that went effect almost one year ago.

The rules require lobstermen with federal fishing permits to install monitors on their boats that track their location on the water.

The lobstermen argued that the tracking is a violation of their constitutional rights to privacy, equal protection and due process.

A federal judge in Bangor dismissed the case Thursday, in part, because of jurisdictional issues. Though the Maine Department of Marine Resources promulgated the rules, the policy to begin monitoring came from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission said it’s seeking more data from multiple states about fishing trends and potential interactions with critically endangered right whales and other species.

Judge John Woodcock said he was also swayed by DMR’s arguments that the monitoring is not overly intrusive of lobstermen privacy, as the industry is subject to tougher standards and conservation measures that are meant to protect the fishery.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Environmental NGO plans lawsuit against Cooke over alleged water pollution at Maine-based salmon farms

November 18, 2024 — The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has sent a letter to Cooke Inc. CEO Glenn Cooke announcing its intent to sue the company over alleged Clean Water Act violations at its salmon farms in the U.S. state of Maine.

“Cooke is in full compliance with the laws set forth by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and its operating permits,” the company said. “Cooke’s Maine Atlantic salmon farms are routinely inspected by state regulators and subject to regular monitoring reports. These laws are designed to protect Maine waters as well as Maine’s heritage fisheries.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Federal judge dismisses Bering Sea trawl fleet’s challenge to stricter halibut bycatch limits

November 18, 2024 — A federal judge in Alaska has dismissed a legal challenge filed by the Bering Sea bottom-trawl fleet against stricter halibut bycatch limits.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved a new halibut bycatch quota system in December 2021 based on annual surveys of the valuable flatfish. Instead of fixed limits, the new abundance-based system means that when halibut stocks are low, bycatch caps can be cut by up to 35%.

The lawsuit challenging those caps was filed by Groundfish Forum Inc., a Seattle-based trade association representing five companies and 19 bottom-trawl vessels. The association argued that it was unfairly targeted, and that the new bycatch limits could result in significant economic losses.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Federal judge dismisses Alaska trawlers’ lawsuit that sought to overturn halibut limits

November 14, 2024 — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to overturn new halibut bycatch limits on deep-sea trawlers that fish in federal waters off Alaska.

The lawsuit was filed by Groundfish Forum Inc., a Seattle-based trawl trade group, after the North Pacific Fishery Management Council passed a rule that reduces halibut bycatch limits for many trawlers when there are fewer halibut in Alaska waters.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, in charge of implementing the rule, moved to dismiss the lawsuit, and U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in favor of the agency on Nov. 8. Undercurrent News, a trade publication, first reported on the ruling.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

DC Circuit tests Chevron’s impact in fisheries case

November 6, 2024 — The demise of the Chevron doctrine may not spell automatic doom for the federal fisheries rule that was at the center of the Supreme Court case that ended 40 years of precedent on agency deference.

During oral arguments Monday, judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — who in 2022 upheld the NOAA Fisheries regulation on Chevron grounds — appeared to think that there is still statutory support to affirm requirements for herring vessels to pay the salaries of third-party onboard monitors.

The case, Loper Bright v. Raimondo, is back before the D.C. Circuit after the Supreme Court decided in June to overturn Chevron, which since 1984 had instructed federal judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. But the justices did not decide the fate of the NOAA Fisheries rule at the heart of the case.

Read the full article at E&E News

Conagra to settle MSC labeling class action lawsuit, continues fight against short-weighting suit

November 6, 2024 — U.S. food supplier Conagra has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit which alleged the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification label on its Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s frozen seafood products is deceptive.

In a status hearing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on 5 November, the two parties – Conagra and plaintiffs John Bohen and Abdallah Nasser – “report they have settled but need more time to finalize settlement,” a court document said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Court open to upholding US fishing monitor rule even without ‘Chevron’ doctrine

November 5, 2024 — A U.S. appeals court on Monday appeared open to upholding a federal rule requiring commercial fishermen to fund a program to monitor for overfishing of herring off New England’s coast even after the U.S. Supreme Court in that same case issued a landmark ruling curbing agencies’ regulatory power.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, during oral arguments, weighed the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to scrap a 40-year-old legal doctrine that had required courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws they administer.

The 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court nixed the doctrine, known as “Chevron deference,” after taking up an appeal by several commercial fishing companies of the D.C. Circuit panel’s 2-1 ruling in August 2022 that had relied on the doctrine to uphold the fishing rule.

The justices sent the case back to the D.C. Circuit to reassess the rule’s validity post-Chevron using their own judgment and for further arguments by the fishing companies, led by New Jersey-based Loper Bright Enterprises.

Read the full article at Reuters

‘A post-Chevron world’: DC Circuit wrestles with agency authority in fishing boat spat

November 5, 2024 — A D.C. Circuit panel grappled Monday with the fallout from the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn a longstanding legal doctrine which allowed federal judges to defer to a government agency’s interpretation of a challenged statue.

The high court ruled 6-3 in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that the doctrine, known as Chevron deference, should be overturned and that federal judges themselves should instead “exercise their independent judgment” when an agency oversteps its authority.

That case was originally argued before the D.C. Circuit in 2021, the appellate circuit that deals the most with challenges against federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and, in this case, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In its decision to overturn Chevron, the high court remanded the case to the three-judge panel to reassess claims by a coalition of fishing companies that the government was wrong to require they pay the wages of independent “at-sea monitors.”

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Ocean City expects BOEM lawsuit to cost up to $400K

November 1, 2024 — The Town of Ocean City and several local agencies and businesses are suing a federal agency over its approval process for the US Wind project off Maryland’s coast.

On Oct. 25, the Town of Ocean City announced it has retained Marzulla Law, LLC to file a lawsuit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The lawsuit, which lists several co-plaintiffs, challenges the agency’s process for approving the US Wind project, which will involve the construction of 114, 938-foot-tall wind turbines roughly 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.

“We have a responsibility to protect our ecosystem, our economy, view shed and our future,” Mayor Rick Meehan said in a news release. “For the past seven and half years we have been trying to work with the State of Maryland and the federal government to address our concerns with this project. All of our concerns were either ignored or considered insignificant. It is unfortunate that it has come to this, but the Town was left with no choice but to file suit against BOEM and challenge their favorable record of decision on the US Wind project.”

In September, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a favorable record of decision for the commercial-scale Maryland offshore wind project. The agency’s approval concluded a two-year National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and set US Wind on a path to securing all of its remaining federal permits by the end of 2024.

Read the full article at The Dispatch