SAN FRANCISCO (Pacnews) — The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service violated laws requiring protection of Pacific groundfish, a federal judge has ruled.
Siding with environmental and fishing groups, the judge ruled that the federal agency failed to address the problem of bycatch—the accidental catching and killing of non-targeted fish and other species, such as sea turtles and birds.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson ordered the fisheries agency to revise its fishery management plan to comply with federal fisheries laws.
In 1996, Congress enacted the federal Sustainable Fisheries Act, amending the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, in order to prevent over fishing and rebuild the nation’s fish stocks. The Sustainable Fisheries Act required that fisheries managers take steps to reduce bycatch, among other things.
In his opinion, Larson wrote that, “Defendants’ failure to minimize bycatch and bycatch mortality is arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.” The judge’s opinion criticized NMFS’ failure to require observers onboard fishing boats, even though the agency had admitted that was the only way to adequately assess the amount and type of bycatch.
“Under this ruling, NMFS can no longer claim that it doesn’t have enough information to act to protect the Pacific groundfish,” said Sylvia Liu, attorney at Oceana, which served as co-counsel in the case. “On the contrary, the court has made clear that the law requires the government to collect information on bycatch in order to address the problem.”
Trawlers catch fish species indiscriminately, leading to the deaths of thousands of unwanted fish.
NMFS is responsible for managing the 82 fish species that make up the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery. Stocks of many groundfish have plummeted in recent decades, a problem that conservation groups blame on over fishing and wasteful fishing practices.
Bycatch is a serious problem for depleted species of groundfish off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, where most are caught by accident by commercial trawling vessels. Trawlers drag huge, heavy nets across the bottom of the ocean, tearing up the ocean floor and sweeping up any fish in its path.
Groundfish species that are not specifically sought by the trawlers are discarded when the nets are hauled in. Most of these groundfish are dead or dying when they are thrown back into the sea.
