October 22, 2018 — The D.C. Circuit appeared primed Monday to uphold how the government counts bycatch — a term for various sea life unintentionally swept up in commercial fishing.
Led by the nonprofit Oceana, the challengers take issue specifically with procedures by which the National Marine Fisheries Service monitors for bycatch with less intensity than Congress allowed it.
But the arguments by Oceana attorney Lide Paterno before the D.C. Circuit this morning seemed unlikely to sway the court’s three-judge panel.
“I mean, no agency has enough money to do everything they would like,” U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins said.
Congress required the government to develop bycatch tracking methods in 1996 to address the concern that even those fish that are thrown back from the nets do not survive the ordeal.
The agency came up with a new procedure to cover the Greater Atlantic region three years ago after a plan from 2008 was found to have improperly given the agency “complete discretion” to depart from procedure.