September 14, 2015 (Saving Seafood) — Several fishing companies operating in the pelagic longline fishery have filed a motion in the Eastern District of North Carolina to overturn recent federal regulations aimed at reducing bycatch of Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The motion describes the regulations, part of Amendment 7 to the Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan, as posing “a distinct threat to the American fishing industry and coastal communities, while depriving American consumers of healthy fish stocks.” According to the filing, the government’s method of controlling bluefin bycatch–creating an individual bluefin quota for the pelagic longline fleet–will result in additional expenses, the inability to catch full allocations of other, abundant species like swordfish, and the possibility of reallocating of tuna quotas to foreign fleets if U.S. quotas are not met.
The motion concludes that, because NOAA failed “to properly consider the negative impact of the final Amendment 7 measures,” as well as those measures being in violation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Amendment 7 should be rejected as “arbitrary and capricious” by the court.