Saving Seafood

EPA ‘open to reconsideration’ of Alaska’s Pebble mine — DOJ

July 8, 2025 — Some Trump administration officials are open to reconsidering its prior opposition to the contentious Pebble mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay watershed, which is a prime salmon habitat, according to federal lawyers.

Attorneys with the Department of Justice said in recent court filings that EPA officials are considering a veto the agency issued in 2023 under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act that halted the open-pit copper and gold mine. The mine has drawn considerable pushback given it would be built near the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

“Agency officials remain open to reconsideration, and Defendants and [Pebble Limited Partnership] are negotiating to explore a potential settlement,” Adam Gustafson, acting assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, wrote in a Thursday legal filing.

Read the full article at E&E News

EPA announces commitment to protect fish in the Delaware River

April 2, 2025 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it plans to finalize new water quality standards that aim to protect fish in a portion of the Delaware River.

The announcement comes more than a year after the protections were first proposed, and after environmentalists took legal action to speed up the process.

Some fish traveling the river between Philadelphia, South Jersey and Wilmington struggle to survive and thrive due to low dissolved oxygen levels caused by ammonia discharges from wastewater facilities.

This urban stretch of the Delaware River is the only section of the region’s waterways that isn’t fully protective of aquatic life, according to the EPA, and oxygen level criteria doesn’t meet Clean Water Act standards.

Read the full article at WHYY

Environmental NGO plans lawsuit against Cooke over alleged water pollution at Maine-based salmon farms

November 18, 2024 — The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has sent a letter to Cooke Inc. CEO Glenn Cooke announcing its intent to sue the company over alleged Clean Water Act violations at its salmon farms in the U.S. state of Maine.

“Cooke is in full compliance with the laws set forth by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and its operating permits,” the company said. “Cooke’s Maine Atlantic salmon farms are routinely inspected by state regulators and subject to regular monitoring reports. These laws are designed to protect Maine waters as well as Maine’s heritage fisheries.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Cooke Aquaculture Responds to Conservation Law Foundation’s Threat to Sue

November 14, 2024 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

Cooke Aquaculture USA, Inc. (“Cooke”) vehemently denies the generalized allegations brought forth by the Conservation Law Foundation in its November 14 notice of intent to file suit. Allegations that Cooke is violating the Clean Water Act and Maine Pollutant Discharge Elimination System General Permit for Net Pen Aquaculture are false, misleading and lack any substantiating evidence.

Cooke’s core purpose is ‘To cultivate the ocean with care, nourish the world, provide for our families, and build stronger communities’.

Cooke is proud of its contributions to Maine’s iconic seafood industry by providing a local, nutritious, affordable source of protein to consumers throughout Maine, New England and the United States. Providing food security and being a responsible player in Maine’s food-farming system are at the core of Cooke’s values.

Cooke is in full compliance with the laws set forth by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and its operating permits.  Cooke’s Maine Atlantic salmon farms are routinely inspected by state regulators and subject to regular monitoring reports. These laws are designed to protect Maine waters as well as Maine’s heritage fisheries.

Cooke’s Maine Atlantic salmon farms are also routinely audited and certified by third-party sustainability organizations. Cooke was one of the early adopters of the Global Seafood Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices third-party certification program. As part of this independent, voluntary program, all of Cooke’s Maine salmon aquaculture farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills are audited against standards for environmental responsibility, social accountability, animal health and welfare, and food safety. To attain certification, facilities must be fully compliant with all clauses in the standards. Additionally, Atlantic salmon farmed in Maine is rated as a “good alternative” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.

Finfish aquaculture has coexisted with heritage fisheries, such as lobstering, in Maine waters for more than 40 years. Lobster landings are not negatively affected by Atlantic salmon farms. In fact, lobster gear is set alongside and within aquaculture lease boundaries.

Aquaculture farming is an economic engine for Maine’s working waterfronts with Atlantic salmon aquaculture being a major source of employment for residents of Downeast Maine. Cooke employs 230 people throughout the state and celebrated its 20th anniversary of aquaculture operations in Maine this year.

Contact:

Steven Hedlund
Director of Public Affairs
Cooke Aquaculture USA, Inc. (Cooke USA)
+1 207-952-4864
steven.hedlund@cookeaqua.com
www.cookeseafood.com

Alaska Native corporations challenge EPA veto authority

June 27, 2024 — Two Alaska Native Village corporations are suing the Biden administration and calling on a district court there to halt EPA’s Clean Water Act authority to stymie projects like the Pebble copper and gold mine in the pristine Bristol Bay.

Iliamna Natives Ltd. and Alaska Peninsula Corp. on Monday sued EPA in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, arguing the agency overstepped its authority when it issued a rare veto under the Clean Water Act last year to block the Pebble mine from being built in a watershed that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit known for arguing a precedent-setting Clean Water Act case before the Supreme Court last year that is representing the groups, asked the court to find Section 404 of the Clean Water Act to be unconstitutional.

Read the full article at E&E News

Peter Pan faces USD 750,000 Clean Water Act fine, USD 348,000 lien from F/V Arctic Lady owner

May 30, 2024 — Peter Pan Seafoods is facing a fine from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and another lien from a vendor claiming it hasn’t been paid.

As part of a consent decree filed 24 May in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, Peter Pan faces USD 750,000 (EUR 694,000) in fines for violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act at its processing facilities in Valdez and King Cove, Alaska. The company agreed to pay the fines without admitting any wrongdoing, and also agreed to institute source control procedures and monitor seafood waste outflows at the Valdez facility, to cease using a decommissioned outflow at its King Cove facility, and to conduct annual seafloor surveys until the decree is withdrawn. The company also promised to conduct an audit of each of its Alaska plants and file annual status reports on its waste management systems.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Court upholds that trawling doesn’t violate Clean Water Act

August 15, 2023 — Commercial shrimpers can continue to harvest by trawler in the Pamlico Sound without a Clean Water Act permit, and the state will continue to manage its fisheries.

The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld last week a district court’s Sept. 17, 2021, decision that trawling in the North Carolina estuary does not violate the Clean Water Act, as alleged in a lawsuit that the North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group filed in August 2020 against a half-dozen commercial shrimping businesses.

The reform group argued that bycatch being thrown back into the water is a pollutant and disturbing sediment with trawl nets is dredging, either of which, the group contended, would require commercial shrimpers to obtain a Clean Water Act permit. The three-judge panel rejected the argument.

The district court dismissed the suit in 2021 because the Clean Water Act does not regulate bycatch — the state does — and that disturbing sediment with trawl nets does not violate the act.

The Clean Water Act establishes “the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters,” the EPA explains.

“We affirm the district court’s decision that Fisheries Reform Group fails to plausibly allege that shrimp trawlers are violating the Clean Water Act by either (1) throwing their bycatch back into Pamlico Sound, or (2) disturbing sediment on the Sound’s floor with their trawl nets, thereby causing it to resettle,” Judge Julius Richardson wrote in the panel’s unanimous opinion decided Aug. 7.

Read the full article at CostalReview.org

Court sides with North Carolina shrimpers on Clean Water Act

August 10, 2023 — The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of North Carolina shrimp fishermen, who had been accused of violating the Clean Water Act by discarding bycatch at sea.

“This is a huge win for all fishermen, commercial and recreational,” North Carolina Fisheries Association Executive Director Glenn Skinner said. “If the courts had decided with Mr. Joseph Albea and the Coastal Fisheries Reform Group, the results would have been devastating for both sectors.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

U.S. Appeals Court’s unanimous decision supports shrimp trawling in state sounds

August 8, 2023 — Commercial shrimpers in the state’s sounds received an overwhelming vote of confidence Monday, Aug. 7 with a unanimous decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a lower court ruling dismissing complaints against shrimp trawling under the Clean Water Act.

The case stems from a 2020 complaint filed by recreational fishermen, Joseph William Albea, David Anthony Sammons, Capt. Seth Vernon, Capt. Richard Andrews, Dwayne Bevell and the North Carolina Fisheries Reform Group.

The Reform Group states on its website that its mission, in part, is “in association with our conservation partners, to change how the State of North Carolina manages our public trust marine resources. We will support the implementation of a new comprehensive management plan to restore our fisheries back to the world-class fishers that they once were.”

The plaintiffs contend that shrimp trawlers in Pamlico Sound are violating the Clean Water Act by engaging in two types of unpermitted activity, “throwing bycatch overboard and disturbing sediment with their trawl net.”

Read the full article at NEWS-TIMES

US Supreme Court deals blow to EPA’s reach under Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023 — The United States Supreme Court rolled back the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act, ruling that the law only applies to wetlands that are indistinguishable from “waters of the United States.”

Environmental groups have condemned the court’s decision as a limitation on the ability of communities to protect waterways and the fish that live in them, but others argue that it’s a necessary curtailment of federal overreach and state bodies can better balance environmental protections and local needs.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource