A U.S. federal judge has backed NOAA's decision to block two shipments of U.K.-caught Chilean sea bass from entering the U.S.
U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Timothy M. Reif has approved a request from Southern Cross Seafoods to transfer its lawsuit against the U.S. government and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, stating the court on which he serves does not have jurisdiction to decide whether the restrictions the Houston, Texas, U.S.A.-based importer faced in bringing U.K.-caught Chilean sea bass into the U.S. were legal.
Southern Cross received two shipments of Chilean sea bass caught by U.K. vessels off the coast of South Georgia Island – a U.K.-controlled island around 1,400 kilometers east of the Falkland Islands – in September 2022. The fish was caught via licenses issued by the U.K. government outside of catch limits set by the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – the regional fishery management organization that oversees the deep-sea fishery.
CCAMLR has been unable to set catch limits for Chilean sea bass – also known as Patagonian toothfish – in the waters it manages since Russia has rejected any consensus on the issue since 2021. The U.K. has responded by issuing its own licenses for 1,670 metric tons (MT) of toothfish, which is below the recommendation of CCAMLR scientists.
However, NMFS rejected Southern Cross Seafoods’ request for preapproval to import its toothfish on the basis that it was in violation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention Act, which makes it unlawful to import any harvested Antarctic marine that disobeys conservation measures required by U.S.-signed treaties, including CCAMLR regulations.
In a letter sent to Southern Cross, NMFS said it had rejected the company’s preapproval application because its product had “determined to have been harvested or transshipped in contravention of [a] CCAMLR conservation measure in force at the time of harvest.”
Southern Cross responded to the rejection by suing NMFS in October 2022, arguing NMFS has instituted a blanket embargo on all Chilean sea bass caught in CCAMLR-managed areas, which the company claims is an action in itself that is a contravention of U.S. law.
Reif rebutted in his 7 December 2023 decision that the NMFS’s action did not constitute an embargo.
A clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida confirmed to SeafoodSource the transfer of the case – approved by Reif on 27 December 2023 – has not been completed as of 8 January 2024.
U.S. officials have expressed concern that a ruling in favor of Southern Cross Seafoods would result in a breakdown of CCAMLR’s management process, allowing less responsible nations to use the precedent to fish without restrictions.
The government of Argentina has a request pending with CCAMLR to place the U.K. boats engaging in Patagonia toothfish fishing in CCAMLR’s management area on its list of vessels that engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Three of the four vessels authorized by the U.K. to fish near South Georgia belong to British-Norwegian fishing firm Argos Froyanes.
Photo courtesy of The Image Party/Shutterstock
