October 2, 2017 — A federal court has ruled that the US state of Louisiana can intervene in a lawsuit on the federal government’s behalf as environmental groups seek the scrapping of a rule benefitting recreational red snapper fishers.
Two advocacy groups — New York City’s Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Washington D.C.’s Ocean Conservancy — had sued the federal government in August alleging that the way the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) managed the red snapper fishery violated federal law.
The challenge, the fourth of its kind in recent years, argued that a NOAA temporary rule extending chronically short recreational red snapper seasons for recreational fishers — from three days to 42 — violated the fishery’s management plan.
The suit wants the temporary rule set aside as the action could greatly diminish red snapper populations, the groups claim.