Saving Seafood

Alaska asks US Supreme Court to weigh in on subsistence fishing dispute with federal officials

September 18, 2025 — After losing its case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the state of Alaska is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on its subsistence fishing system, which gives preferential treatment to rural Alaskans.

“Alaska’s fisheries are among the most bountiful in the world, sustaining tens of thousands of livelihoods through commercial, sport, and subsistence fishing. Yet, the Ninth Circuit’s decision deepens a fractured system that undermines conservation, creates confusion, and threatens equitable access for all Alaskans. Salmon don’t recognize federal and state boundaries; our management shouldn’t either. We remain committed to sustainable management and will continue fighting for a system that works for every Alaskan. The Court should decide this case and reverse the Ninth Circuit,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Federal appeals court preserves Alaska’s two-tier system for subsistence fishing management

August 22, 2025 — Alaska’s current subsistence fishing program can continue without changes, according to a Wednesday opinion by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ruling allows the federal government to continue offering preferential fishing rights to rural Alaskans — mostly Alaska Natives — who live a subsistence lifestyle.

That preference exists only in public waters under federal control, not in state waters, because federal law requires the preference but the Alaska Constitution forbids state officials from implementing it.

In their 40-page opinion, the judges said that recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings do not mandate a change in the way the state and federal governments split management of fish and game in Alaska.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Despite commercial fishers’ US Supreme Court victory, district court upholds at-sea observers rule

July 22, 2o25 — A U.S. District Court has upheld a rule requiring commercial fishers to pay for at-sea monitors, despite the case playing a role in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Chevron deference last year.

The Chevron deference is a longstanding judicial precedent that instructed courts to give federal agencies wide latitude in interpreting the laws passed by Congress. While the Supreme Court ruled in favor of two separate lawsuits brought by commercial fishermen in overturning the Chevron deference, the lower U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island has determined that the fishing regulation at the heart of one of those cases will remain in place.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Court upholds rule requiring fishing boat owners to pay regulators

July 18, 2025 — A federal court has upheld the government’s ability to require commercial fishing boat owners to pay for monitors aboard their vessels, a year after the Supreme Court took up the case and broadly curbed federal agencies’ authority.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled Tuesday that a NOAA Fisheries rule was lawful under the primary U.S. fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

Senior Judge William Smith said the court must exercise its independent judgment on whether an agency acted within its authority.

Read the full article at E&E News

US seafood industry set for spike in court battles in the wake of Chevron’s overturning

March 19, 2025 — Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Chevron deference – a legal precedent stemming from the 1980s that gave federal agencies wide latitude in interpreting congressional statutes.

That move, according to Robert Smith, a partner at Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based law firm K&L Gates, could turn the U.S. seafood industry into a more litigious environment in the near future.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishing groups raise Vineyard Wind case to Supreme Court

March 14, 2025 — In another move aimed at offshore wind, the fishing industry is attempting to take its fight against Vineyard Wind to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a national coalition of fishing industry associations and companies, and the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation filed separate petitions last week requesting the Supreme Court to review decisions by a lower court.

Both organizations unsuccessfully petitioned to shutdown Vineyard Wind — the first large-scale offshore wind project approved in the United States and located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard — in the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston last year.

The petitioners say the project was rushed through by the Biden Administration in an effort to establish an American offshore wind industry without considering the consequences.

Read the full article at MV Times

Supreme Court denies fishing case

March 13, 2025 — The Supreme Court has denied a hearing for a coalition of Maryland fishing associations and charter boat operators seeking to overturn new striped bass fishing restrictions. But for Captain Robert Newberry, chairman of the Delmarva Fisheries Association, the legal battle is far from over.

“It’s not good that we were denied the hearing in front of the Supreme Court, but this is far from over. We are in it to win it. We will be announcing our next move within a week,” Newberry said.

The coalition had filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to block the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s new restrictions, arguing they imposed “drastic, unwarranted, and illegal limitations” on striped bass fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast. The March 4 petition claimed the regulations violated the U.S. Constitution and threatened the livelihoods of small fishing businesses.

Read the full article at Southern Maryland News

Fishing industry asks Supreme Court to hear case against Vineyard Wind

March 12, 2025 –A national fishing industry group and conservative think tank have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up their lawsuits challenging the approval of the Vineyard Wind project, which has been under construction since 2023.

The lobbying group, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), sued the lead government regulator of offshore wind in early 2022, alleging the agency violated several acts, including those to protect existing ocean users and endangered species.

At the crux of RODA’s appeal to the Supreme Court is the language of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and particularly, how the federal government interpreted it.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which represents fishermen and a fishing company in Rhode Island in another lawsuit, is similarly arguing the federal government did not correctly interpret statutes in its approval of the Vineyard Wind project.

RODA has long argued that offshore wind farms will interfere with fishermen’s ability to catch fish, reduce vessel safety at sea, and potentially harm the viability of commercial fisheries.

But RODA lost its case twice: first, in 2023 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, where a judge sided with the project and regulators; and second, in 2024 in the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where the judge upheld the lower court’s decision.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation also had its case dismissed by the lower courts.

RODA says the Interior Department during the first Trump administration correctly interpreted statutory language, requiring that the Interior Secretary “shall ensure” approved activities, including offshore wind projects, are consistent with a requirement to prevent interference with “reasonable uses” on the outer continental shelf, including the use of a “seabed for a fishery.”

Read the full article at the The New Bedford Light

RODA asks Supreme Court to hear Vineyard Wind case

March 11, 2025 — Commercial fishing industry advocates appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge of federal permits that authorized the ongoing Vineyard Wind 1 project off southern New England.

The first approved commercial-scale wind energy project in federal waters, the Vineyard Wind federal “approval sets the precedent for all future U.S. offshore wind development,” said the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing groups and communities.

The case was brought March 10 on behalf of fishermen by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative legal advocacy group. It asks the high court to reverse a federal appeals court decision that upheld federal permits for the 804-megawatt Vineyard Wind project.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Striped bass restrictions head to Supreme Court

March 11, 2025 — A coalition of Maryland fishing associations and charter boat operators have escalated their legal battle against new striped bass fishing restrictions, filing an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block the regulations.

Capt. Robert Newberry, chairman of Delmarva Fisheries Association stated, “We will take this case to the highest court until this matter is resolved — it is far from over.”

The Delmarva Fisheries Association and the Maryland Charter Boat Association, along with two individual commercial fishermen, argue that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s recent measures impose “drastic, unwarranted, and illegal limitations” on striped bass fishing in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast. The petition, filed March 4, claims the restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution and could jeopardize the livelihoods of many small businesses.

Read the full article at Southern Maryland News