Environmental NGO Oceana, represented by nonprofit Earthjustice, has filed multiple lawsuits against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) – also known as NOAA Fisheries – for allegedly withholding information about trawl fisheries in the U.S. states of California and Alaska.
Oceana said it made four separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information, such as records, photographs, and videos related to bycatch in trawl fisheries in California and Alaska. The NGO said NMFS either denied the requests or heavily redacted the information it gave in what Oceana called an “irrational and overly broad interpretation” of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
“Public access to information is essential to hold the government accountable and ensure U.S. fisheries are managed sustainably,” Tara Brock, Oceana’s Pacific legal director and senior counsel, said in a release. “The unlawful withholding of information by the Fisheries Service related to the deaths of whales, fish, and other ocean life is unacceptable. People have the right to know how commercial fisheries impact marine wildlife.”
Oceana said it was requesting information related to marine mammals or unwanted fish caught in the trawls and received documents that were entirely redacted and images that were pixelated, blacked out, or blurred.
"The Fisheries Service is entrusted with protecting our treasured marine life and managing our shared marine resources on the public's behalf," Earthjustice Attorney Rumela Roy said. "Yet, the agency is blocking public access to crucial information about how U.S. fisheries impact marine mammals, fish, and our oceans. We are going to court to uphold the Freedom of Information Act’s basic premise – that the government is accountable to the people and can’t keep us in the dark.”
Oceana filed some of the images it received with the lawsuit, which typically show a dead marine mammal surrounded by blurred imagery – some of which completely obscure the subject of the photo.
In its lawsuit, Oceana said the FOIA requests and need for imagery relate to its “advocacy and public education missions” related to marine life and ecosystems.
“Oceana plans to disseminate the requested records in order to educate the public about the harmful effects that trawl gear used in federally managed fisheries has on marine mammals and the need for better management of such fisheries in Alaska,” the NGO said in its lawsuit related to Alaskan imagery.
Oceana claims the redaction NMFS applied to the images removes important context it would use in its public education campaigns and undercuts “the very reason that Oceana sought the records.”
“The Fisheries Service’s redactions unlawfully deprive Oceana – and the public – of important information regarding the agency’s management of North Pacific groundfish fisheries and the trawl industry’s harmful effects on marine mammal species,” the complaint states.
An NMFS spokesperson contacted by SeafoodSource said it is unable to comment on matters related to ongoing litigation.
This isn’t the first time that Oceana has sued NFMS over trawling. In August, the group sued NMFS in Alaska District Court, alleging it failed to adequately protect the North Pacific seabed from bottom trawling. It also successfully sued NMFS over its sardine-rebuilding plan on the U.S. West Coast, which a court found was inadequate based on its own science.
