The U.S. District Court for Alaska has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Groundfish Forum – a trade group representing trawl catcher-processors in Alaska – alleging a North Pacific Fishery Management Council rule limiting the sector’s halibut bycatch was unfair.
Finalized in 2023, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Amendment 123 tied the sector’s annual catch limit for halibut bycatch to the most recent halibut abundance figures. The rule could lower the catch limit by up to 35 percent if the abundance level is too low. Amendment 123 went into effect 1 January 2024.
The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Groundfish Forum, which represents the five companies comprising the Amendment 80 trawl sector, claimed the new rule was unfair and would cost the Amendment 80 sector fleet USD 100 million (EUR 91 million) annually.
In a 8 November opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the Groundfish Forum’s lawsuit, ruling in favor of NOAA Fisheries.
In its lawsuit, the Groundfish Forum claimed that the Amendment 80 sector’s halibut bycatch qualified as a “fishing privilege” under National Standard 4 of the Magnuson Stevens Act, meaning that regulators are required to allocate that bycatch fairly and equitably. Amendment 123 is “a politically motivated, arbitrary, and unlawful allocation of fishing privileges,” the Groundfish Forum told the court.
While the court accepted that Amendment 123 might count as an allocation of a fishing privilege under the law, it determined that regulators had met that fair and equitable standard in the final economic impact statement
“Upon review of the record, the Court finds that [NOAA Fisheries] satisfactorily explained how Amendment 123 is rationally connected with the legitimate Groundfish FMP goal to manage bycatch and why any hardship imposed on the Amendment 80 sector was outweighed by the total benefits received by the directed halibut fishery and the halibut stock, particularly as bycatch mortality by the Amendment 80 sector in Area 4CDE (where Amendment 80 catches up to 90 percent of its halibut bycatch limit) has exceeded directed halibut fishery removal for many years,” the court explained in its opinion.
The court also dismissed the Groundfish Forum’s argument that regulators failed to consider alternatives that wouldn’t overburden the Amendment 80 fleet. The court found the council had indeed considered alternatives in the process of drafting an environmental impact statement, ultimately eliminating other sections from consideration under Amendment 123 “because Amendment 80 sector comprises the majority of halibut PSC mortality.”
The court ruled that the council had acted lawfully and met the requirements laid out by the National Environmental Policy Act.
