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Can fishermen be required to pay for federal monitors? And by the way – should Chevron be overruled?

March 30, 2023 — The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

This week’s update will be brief because of the press of business in my day job. The likeliest grant out of last week’s relists got the nod: The Supreme Court will decide in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer whether “testers” under the Americans with Disabilities Act have constitutional standing to challenge the ADA compliance of hotels they don’t plan to visit. But all was not sweetness and light. The court denied review to five-time relist Donziger v. United States, involving a separation of powers challenge to the appointment of private lawyers to prosecute a contempt of court. Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, dissented from the denial of review.

That brings us to this week’s sole new relist: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The Magnuson-Stevens Act governs the management of fisheries in federal waters and provides that the National Marine Fisheries Service may require vessels to carry federal observers onboard to enforce agency regulations to prevent overfishing. The National Marine Fisheries Service construed the governing statute to allow it to require industry to pay the salaries of those monitors. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that the statute was reasonably read to allow the agency to require industry to pay the cost of federal monitors. In dissent, Judge Justin R. Walker wrote that “Congress unambiguously did not” authorize the agency to make fishermen “pay the wages of federal monitors who inspect them at sea.”

Before the Supreme Court, petitioners, a group of fishing companies, argue first that under a proper application of Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Magnuson-Stevens Act does not grant the agency the power to require domestic vessels to pay the salaries of the monitors; they argue that while the agency is authorized to require monitors, it is silent about requiring industry to pay for them. But in addition to that plain-vanilla administrative law question, the petition has a second question that is a potential blockbuster: Whether the court should overrule Chevron or at least clarify whether statutory silence about the matter of payment constitutes an ambiguity requiring deference to the agency. The Chevron doctrine calls on courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws. Critics argue that this gives unaccountable bureaucrats too much power. Enough people think this case may have legs that a whopping fourteen amicus briefs were filed supporting the petition.

I hate to read too much into subjective impressions, but the government’s brief in opposition seems to me to have a tone that suggests that it is resigned to the fact that the court will grant review, at least on the narrower issue. But next term will become a lot more interesting if the court grants on the broader issue of whether to overrule Chevron. Tune in Monday!

This post may have been fairly plain, but I just wanted to point out that at least I made it all the way through without any bad fish puns. I wouldn’t be cod dead doing that.

Read the full article at SCOTUSblog

Federal bill would undo six-year right whale regulatory pause championed by Maine delegation

March 2, 2023 — The bill has a long name: The Restoring Effective Science-based Conservation Under Environmental Laws Protecting Whales, or the RESCUE Whales Act.

But the legislation, introduced earlier this week by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, would have a simple outcome. It would eliminate a provision that pauses the development of new federal right whale regulations on the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries for the next six years, a measure that Maine’s congressional delegation slipped into the latest federal spending bill during the final days of 2022.

In joint statement, all four members of the Maine delegation defended the provision, which they described as a “lifeline” to the state’s lobster industry that provides “time to pinpoint the true cause of the decline in the right whale population.”

The Rescue Whales Act, they said, would “unfairly target Maine’s lobster industry without any data or taking into account the reality in the Gulf of Maine.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

Sullivan, Whitehouse, Menendez, Peters, Bonamici & Gonzalez-Colón Seek to enhance effectiveness of Marine Debris Program

February 10, 2023 — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Jenniffer González-Colón (R-Puerto Rico), Thursday reintroduced legislation amending the 2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act and the 2006 Marine Debris Act to provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with greater flexibility to deliver federal resources and enter into cooperative agreements to conduct marine debris prevention and clean-up.

The legislation also clarifies the function and responsibilities of the congressionally-chartered Marine Debris Foundation. The legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent in the previous Congress.

Read the full article at KIFW

New bipartisan caucus pushing progress on aquaculture issues on Capitol Hill

February 9, 2023 — A new congressional aquaculture caucus is pushing to make American aquaculture more competitive globally through legislative initiatives in Washington D.C.

Thirteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives formed the inaugural class of the caucus in December 2022: U.S. Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-California), Jerry Carl (R-Alabama), Buddy Carter (R-Georgia), Scott Franklin (R-Florida), French Hill (R-Arkansas), Maria Salazar (R-Florida), Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia), Rob Wittman (R-Virginia) , Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Steven Palazzo (R-Mississippi), Jimmy Panetta (D-California), and Kat Cammack (R-Florida), Case, Palazzo, Panetta, and Cammack are co-chairing the caucus.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Dem lawmaker criticizes Biden for ritzy White House state dinner serving ‘200 Maine lobsters’

December 1, 2022 — A Democratic lawmaker is pushing back on President Biden’s pompous White House celebration, where 200 live lobsters will be served for guests Thursday during a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The night before the dinner, where guests are expected to enjoy lobster and caviar, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, took to Twitter to urge Biden to meet with the lobstermen his administration is “currently regulating out of business.”

“If the Biden White House can prioritize purchasing 200 Maine lobsters for a fancy dinner, [Biden] should also take the time to meet with the Maine lobstermen his administration is currently regulating out of business,” Golden said in a tweet.

The red, white and blue-themed dinner with Macron, France’s first lady Brigitte Macron, and others will be the first state visit Biden has allowed at the White House since 2021 as other events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Golden’s tweet is his latest call on Biden to uphold his promises to protect Maine’s lobster industry, especially amid a new dispute with whale conservationists.

The Maine lawmaker released a statement in October saying Biden broke his promise to Maine lobstermen.

“In 2020, while running for president, Biden pledged ‘I will work to protect the livelihood and safety of the fishing community’ in reference to lobstermen. He has yet to take a single action to make good on that pledge,” Golden said.

Read the full article at Fox News

MAINE: Maine lobstermen, lawmakers visit Washington, DC to advocate for industry

December 1, 2022 — With Maine lobstermen saying their livelihoods are at stake, local leaders are meeting with federal leaders in Washington, D.C.

Maine House Republicans, including Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham, who is also a lobsterman, met with Senator Susan Collins Tuesday.

Read the full article at FOX 23

US Representative Jared Huffman: MSA reauthorization unlikely to pass this term

October 22, 2022 — The U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife may have passed H.R. 4690 – the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act, the latest attempt to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) – but U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California) told SeafoodSource the chances of it passing this session are slim.

The bill was approved by the committee on 29 September, 2022, leaving a relatively short time for it to pass through both the U.S. House and Senate before the end of the year, when the current congressional term expires.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Rewrite of federal fisheries law navigates rough partisan waters

October 5, 2022 — There are two names that come up a lot in the Alaska fisheries world.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, named for U.S. Senators Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.) and Ted Stevens (R-AK), has been around since 1976 and sets the rules for federal fisheries in the U.S.

Management plans set in those waters have to stand up to the act and its national standards — for example, a plan that would’ve closed a large swath of Cook Inlet to commercial fishing was overturned earlier this year because the court said it did not comply with Magnuson.

The act has been renewed and revised twice, in 1996 and 2006. On Sept. 29, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a long-sought rewrite of the act that tightens restrictions on bycatch — which is the incidental catch of non-target species, like salmon — and calls out the threat of climate change in federal fisheries.

The resulting Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act would still need to pass Congress before taking effect. But if passed, it could have big implications for the way Alaska’s federal fisheries are managed.

“Anybody who is dependent on halibut is impacted by the language in this bill. Anybody who is dependent on salmon and interactions between salmon and pollock fishery, for example, is impacted by this bill,” said Marissa Wilson, of Homer, who directs the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Read the full article at KTOO

New move in Congress to reestablish National Seafood Council

October 4, 2022 — There’s a new move afoot in Congress to revive the National Seafood Council, bringing back a unified national marketing campaign from three decades ago.

Industry advocates began to see the national council idea as a response to the covid-19 pandemic and its massive disruption of the U.S. seafood supply. Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., on Sept. 29 introduced the Seafood Marketing Act of 2022 to reestablish the National Seafood Council, to run a national seafood marketing campaign “that promotes the public health benefits and sustainability of all seafood,” according to a statement from the senators.

In 1986 Congress passed the Fish and Seafood Promotion Act that provided start-up funding for a national marketing council that operated from 1987 to 1991. After the market mayhem of covid-19 – which still saw strong consumer demand for seafood when it was available – the U.S. Department of Commerce Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee proposed reviving the National Seafood Council.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Magnuson-Stevens changes move through House committee

September 30, 2022 — The House Natural Resources Committee voted Thursday to report out the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act, setting a course for Congressional action on the first major overhaul of federal fisheries law in 16 years.

Known as H.R. 4690, the measure would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management after a three-year effort headed by lead sponsor Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif. Huffman and supporters say the measure is needed to update the law, especially in recognition of long-term climate changes effects on fisheries.

H.R. 4690 “addresses for the first time the impacts of a changing climate on U.S. fisheries and incorporates the growing reality of climate change into proactive fisheries management planning, including preparing for a geographic shift in fish stocks due to warming waters,” said Robert C. Vandermark, executive director of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, in a statement after the committee vote.

“All of these fisheries management improvements will help us meet the current and future challenges facing our oceans and fisheries and will benefit the communities and people who depend on them,” said Vandermark.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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