Conservation advocates won a key court battle this week when a federal judge upheld her decision to require the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider the catch limits it set for the central sub-population of northern anchovy.
In denying a request by federal officials to overturn her January order, Judge Lucy Koh used the defendants’ own language from their motion. Koh, who serves the Northern District of California, said their motion acknowledged that the overfishing limit and acceptable biological catch limits – which are used to set the annual catch limit – were challengeable.
In January, Koh issued a 33-page ruling ordering the Fisheries Service to reset the catch limit for northern anchovy in the central sub-population region, which includes California and Baja California in Mexico.
Oceana filed the lawsuit on 23 November 2016, a month after NMFS set the catch limit at 25,000 metric tons (MT). The advocacy group claimed federal officials had set the same catch limit since 2000 and were using data based from a 1991 study that set the anchovy biomass at more than 700,000 MT.
However, more recent studies – including one by federal officials – indicated the biomass was much smaller. Those reports indicated the biomass to be between 15,000 and 32,000 MT.
“The court’s most recent decision underscores that the Fisheries Service needs to stop wasting time ignoring science and resisting its obligations,” said Andrea Treece, staff attorney for Earthjustice, which represented Oceana in the suit. “It must update the limits it uses to prevent overfishing and ensure sustainable catch levels now, so they reflect reality rather than dusty, disproven assumptions.”
A representative for Oceana said the ruling makes federal officials accountable.
“This decision holds the government’s feet to the fire,” said Mariel Combs, senior Pacific counsel for Oceana. “The Fisheries Service must uphold the fundamental standards intended by Congress, and sustainably manage our nation’s fisheries for the benefit of both fishermen and marine life.”
In her order Koh clarified – per the request of federal officials – that her ruling was limited to only northern anchovy and excluded other stocks.
