A U.S. federal judge has upheld the government’s decision to block imports of Chilean sea bass, despite a legal challenge from a small importer.
Chilean sea bass, also known as Patagonian toothfish, is a highly valued fish harvested in the South Atlantic Ocean near Antarctica. Since 1980, the fishery has been governed by the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), a regional fishery management organization that includes the United States, Russia, the U.K., and others.
Since 2021, however, Russia has declined to approve catch limits for the fishery, effectively vetoing any conservation efforts that could be implemented by the commission. Without any approved catch limits, the Chilean sea bass fishery was effectively closed.
The U.K. responded by issuing fishing permits for the waters around South Georgia, an island claimed by both the U.K. and Argentina. While the U.K. set catch limits lower than those proposed to the commission, the unilateral move was criticized for undermining cooperative management and conservation of international fisheries.
U.S. law prohibits the importation of “any Antarctic marine resource” harvested in violation of CCAMLR’s conservation measures. So, when Houston, Texas, U.S.A.-based Southern Cross Seafoods filed an application to import Chilean sea bass in 2022, the government denied it. According to the U.S. government, the failure of the commission to set catch limits effectively prohibited all toothfish harvesting.
Southern Cross Seafoods sued the government in 2022, arguing that regulators had acted arbitrarily and illegally in blocking their import application. According to the company, CCAMLR had not explicitly barred the harvest of Chilean sea bass, meaning that importing the fish was not in violation of the convention or U.S. law.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz took issue with the position that the absence of a catch limit meant that fish could be harvested from the area without violating the convention, arguing that such a view contradicted the clear intention of CCAMLR.
“Clearly, an interpretation that would allow unlimited fishing of toothfish [around South Georgia] would contravene these principles because otherwise, under a convention designed to protect Antarctic marine living resources, an entity would be able to deplete an entire population of fish with no recourse for the commission,” Leibowitz said. “Such a result would be absurd, illogical, and contravene the test of principles set forth in the convention.”
Ultimately, Leibowitz found the U.S. government’s interpretation of the law and the treaty to be correct: When the commission fails to set catch limits for Chilean sea bass, all Chilean sea bass fishing is prohibited.
