Saving Seafood

Law

Vineyard Wind opponents ask federal judge to halt project over environmental concerns

January 26, 2023 — Opponents of an offshore wind turbine farm under construction south of Martha’s Vineyard are asking a federal judge to halt the project, and require federal authorities to take another look at the project’s potential impacts on the environment and wildlife.

The nonprofit group Nantucket Residents Against Turbines is trying to put the brakes on Vineyard Wind, which was approved in May 2021 by the Biden administration, and is being built a dozen or so miles off the resort island.

Amy DiSibio, a member of the group’s board, told reporters before a hearing Tuesday in US District Court in Boston that federal endangered species and environmental laws were not “carefully considered” when the project was approved, and deserve much more scrutiny, she said.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

SE Alaska trollers and conservation group await judge’s decision on possible Chinook fishery closure

January 23, 2023 — The Southeast Alaska troll fishery of wild Chinook salmon is facing a potential shutdown due to a lawsuit filed by the Wildfish Conservancy, a non-profit conservation organization based in Seattle.

The lawsuit was filed as a course of action to protect the Southern Resident killer whales and the wild chinook salmon that migrate to Southeast Alaska from rivers in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon

On Dec. 13, 2022, the Magistrate for the U.S. Western Washington District Court released a Report and Recommendation with a proposed order that includes temporarily vacating the Incidental Take Permit (ITS) that allows Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery to harvest wild Chinook salmon year-round. The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently working to revise the Biological Opinion, including the ITS.

The Wildfish Conservancy, based in Washington State, filed the lawsuit to stop trollers in Southeast Alaska summer and winter king fishing, citing its impact on the endangered population of Southern Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound and its lack of food, particularly Chinook salmon. The Wildfish Conservancy states the Southern Resident killer whales are down to a population of 73 whales, down from 100 25 years ago. The conservancy of the population decline is due in large part to a lack of prey, particularly wild chinook caught in Southeast Alaska during the summer and winter troll fishery

On Jan. 10, the due date for objections, all parties filed their objections.

The Wildfish Conservancy filed objections, finding that the analysis governing the Columbia River in Washington state prey increase programs was flawed under federal law and that the Incidental Take Statement covering the Southeast Alaska troll fishery was also legally deficient.

Read the full article at Sikta Radio Center

Mowi: US DOJ has dropped price-fixing investigation

January 18, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its investigation of Mowi’s involvement in alleged price-fixing in Norway’s farmed Atlantic salmon market, according to the Bergen, Norway-based company.

“Mowi has been informed by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in the U.S.A. that they have no longer an open investigation into Mowi,” the company said in a 18 January statement. “Mowi has all along been adamant that the price collusion allegations have clearly lacked merit and are entirely unsubstantiated.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance: Amendment 53 Court Decision is Disappointing

January 11, 2023 — Allocation issues are nearly always complicated and controversial. The same could be said of Amendment 53 to the Management Plan for Reef Fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Friday, Jan. 6, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia upheld NOAA Fisheries’ decision to implement Amendment 53 to the Management Plan for Reef Fish in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance said in a statement.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Court upholds Gulf of Mexico red grouper reallocation

January 10, 2023 –A federal court has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service decision to implement changes to the Gulf of Mexico reef fish management and reallocate more red grouper to the recreational fishing sector.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly in a Jan. 6 opinion said the agency is acting properly in enacting Amendment 53 to the reef management plan, approved by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council over strenuous objections from the commercial fishing industry.

Amendment 53 was challenged in the District of Columbia federal dcourt by the Galveston, Texas-based Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, the A.P. Bell Fish Company, of Cortez, Florida, and the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, a longliner group based in Madeira Beach, Florida.

The Charter Fishermen’s Association joined in by filing an amicus, or “friend of the court” legal brief. While nominally part of the recreational sector, the charter captains said they agreed with commercial fishermen that Amendment 53 could ultimately hurt the red grouper resource and fishery.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA’s red grouper reallocations affirmed by federal judge

January 9, 2023 — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s implementation of Amendment 53 will move forward after a federal judge upheld the U.S. agency’s management plan for reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the decision here

The Gulf Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance and allied fishermen had sued NMFS to stop the implementation of Amendment 53, part of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s reef fish management plan. The plan, announced by NOAA on Monday, 2 May, 2022, will reduce the commercial allocation of red grouper caught in the Gulf of Mexico to 59.3 percent, down from 76 percent, while increasing the recreational fishing sector’s allocation from 24 percent to 40.7 percent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Court reins in ‘politically motivated’ rush to dismantle fish farms

January 9, 2023 — A court has ordered Hilary Franz, the Commissioner of Public Lands in Washington State to rein in her “unscientific and politically motivated” push to shut down Cooke Aquaculture’s fish farming operations in Puget Sound.

The Superior Court of the State of Washington granted the motion, which was filed by Cooke, yesterday. The original deadline of Jan. 14 has now been moved to April 2023.

Cooke, which raises native Steelhead trout in partnership with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, sought the preliminary injunction to secure a reasonable period of time to safely harvest the fish, and remove the equipment remaining at the Puget Sound sites.

Franz, in a pre-Christmas move abruptly issued notices to Cooke to stop its operations, and followed it up with an executive order to ban the State’s 40-year tradition of fish farming in Puget Sound.

She also refused to allow Cooke more time to harvest the fish in the pens – representing 2,656,000 meals – and the requested period to shut down the sites safely.

Read the full article at SeaWestNews

Washington state court grants Cooke extension to harvest farmed salmon

January 6, 2023 — Cooke Aquaculture on Friday scored a victory in its battle with Washington state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz over how quickly it needs to remove salmon from netpens in state waters.

On Friday, Washington Superior Court Judge Indu Thomas said Cooke would have until April to harvest its remaining fish pens in Washington state instead of by Jan. 14 as was initially required by Franz and the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The judge on Friday granted the extension to “facilitate safe removal of the fish” from the netpens, but reiterated the DNR’s request to remove all equipment by April still stands.

She said the extension for harvesting fish would be granted for “no later than April 14,” but said Cooke should remove the fish “at the earliest opportunity,” if weather allows.

Cooke Aquaculture Pacific Permit Coordinator Kevin Bright testified to the Washington court last month that “dramatic and forced changes to the scheduled production and harvesting plans can create extraordinary farm staffing and safety concerns.”

Read the full story with a subscription at IntraFish

Rhode Island Herring Fishermen Encourage Supreme Court Review of NMFS’s at-Sea Monitor Rule

December 23, 2022 — Relentless Inc., Huntress Inc., and Seafreeze Fleet LLC, corporations operating in the herring fishery off the coast of New England, have filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Loper Bright Enterprises’ petition for a writ of certiorari in Loper Bright Enterprises, et al. v. Raimondo, et al. These Rhode Island small businesses urge the Supreme Court to review this case to (1) resolve the circuit split in how Chevron deference applies to agency actions under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA); and (2) halt a regulation which allows the Nationalarine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to charge fishermen unlawfully for a government function Congress has not approved and apparently does not believe to be worth spending Americans’ tax dollars on. The New Civil Liberties Alliance represents amici here as parties in Relentless Inc., et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, et al., now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Much at stake in US Supreme Court review of at-sea monitoring case

December 21, 2022 — Herring fishermen in the U.S. state of New Jersey are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review their case challenging the at-sea monitoring program, a cause that has gained support from a wide variety of groups.

According to the Cause of Action Institute, which is representing the fishermen suing the federal government, 39 groups are part of 14 amicus briefs that have been filed in the case. That includes attorneys general from 18 states as well as the small business group NFIB, the Cato Institute, several legal foundations, and other fishing-industry stakeholders.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource