August 24, 2022 — Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is getting involved in a legal battle over recreational fishing in the state.
He has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a National Marine Fisheries Service rule that deals with quotas for Gulf of Mexico red grouper fish.
August 16, 2021 — A federal judge in the U.S. state of Louisiana will hold a hearing on Tuesday, 24 August to determine if an injunction should be issued against NOAA Fisheries that would require the agency to postpone implementing a rule mandating shrimp fishermen install turtle excluder devices on their inshore skimmers.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sought the restraining order after NOAA Fisheries failed to continue a delay on a 2019 final rule that called for the excluder devices. In an announcement on 20 December, 2019, the agency said the final rule would take effect on 1 April 2021.
August 13, 2021 — Louisiana’s attorney general has sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in New Orleans federal court to stop it from implementing a regulation that obliges certain shrimp fishermen to install devices that keep endangered sea turtles out of their catch.
In a Wednesday complaint, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the rule that took effect on Aug. 1, about a week before the beginning of the state’s shrimping season, will have “devastating consequences” on the fishermen’s already thin profit margins, and has sowed confusion with fishermen unable to find enough suppliers of so-called turtle-excluder devices for their fishing nets because the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the supply chain.
Landry makes claims that the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirements for reasoned decision-making.
NMFS spokesperson Kate Brogan said the agency is reviewing the complaint.