October 16, 2019 — The state of New York has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) looking to challenge the 2020-20201 quota allocated in relation to the commercial fluke (summer flounder) fishery.
In the lawsuit, filed Oct. 10 in the US Southern District of New York, Basil Seggos, commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, charges NMFS, NOAA and also the parent US agency, the Department of Commerce, with violating the Magnuson Stevens Act and Administrative Procedures Act.
New York’s lawsuit describes how New York’s annual fluke quota is based on a state-by-state allocation formula that was adopted by NMFS in 1993, using landings data from 1980-1989. In the 1980s, the fluke population had been fished to low levels and was centered south of its present location, the state says. The species’ population has since recovered and migrated northward due, in part, to rising water temperatures from climate change.