{"id":2934,"date":"2011-08-09T11:22:25","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T15:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2012-04-25T13:06:10","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T17:06:10","slug":"judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this year, EDF joined with two West Coast fishing industry organizations (United Catcher Boats and Midwater Trawlers Cooperative) in an amicus brief requesting dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen&#8217;s Associations (PCFFA). PCFFA had filed suit to halt the West Coast groundfish trawl program.<\/p>\n<p>Late last week, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled in the case, dismissed PCFFA&#8217;s claims in their entirety and granted summary judgment to the federal defendants (the Secretary of Commerce, NMFS and NOAA). This is an excellent outcome for a program with real potential to transform a failed fishery into a profitable and sustainable one for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Please see the news release on the ruling\u00a0below and download the court&#8217;s decision\u00a0on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.westcoasttrawlers.net\/node\/127\" target=\"_blank\">West Coast Trawlers&#8217; Network <\/a>website.<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Judge Breyer dismisses PCFFA lawsuit; ruling clears way for West Coast trawlers to improve new catch share system <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, Judge Charles Breyer (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California) dismissed a lawsuit that sought to halt the recently enacted West Coast groundfish trawl rationalization program. That lawsuit had been brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen\u2019s Associations (PCFFA) and a handful of other groups against the Secretary of Commerce, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).<\/p>\n<p>Under development since 2003, the trawl rationalization program was designed with significant input from industry, NGOs and other stakeholders to reduce bycatch of overfished and other sensitive stocks, while enabling the fishery to recover economically from a federal disaster declaration in 2000. Some of those stakeholders \u2013 the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, the United Catcher Boats and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) \u2013 supported NOAA and NMFS with an amicus brief in support of the federal defendants\u2019 successful request for summary judgment and dismissal of the suit.<\/p>\n<p>PCFFA\u2019s lawsuit alleged, among other things, that the fishery rationalization program violates national standards requiring management measures to prevent overfishing and to minimize bycatch and bycatch mortality to the extent possible.<\/p>\n<p>The judge rejected the plaintiff\u2019s arguments, however, highlighting NMFS\u2019 argument that the program would:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cincrease individual accountability for total catch, including bycatch, and would give fishermen greater discretion as to when and how to fish. This would be expected to provide greater opportunity to extract the full (optimum yield) of higher biomass species while avoiding lower biomass species. The 100 percent monitoring and increased accountability should reduce the risk of overfishing.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAnd in fact that is exactly what we\u2019ve seen in the fishery so far,\u201d said David Jincks, president of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. \u201cThe flexibility in the program has allowed fishermen who also fish for crab and shrimp to take advantage of strong seasons on those species, without fear of losing their groundfish landings as they would have in the past. And also, unlike previous seasons, the bycatch of overfished species is tracking very low, relative to the catch of target species off the coast. That\u2019s exactly the kind of good news we were looking for out of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fishery stakeholders can now focus attention on refining and improving the new catch share program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that the program has passed legal muster, we can focus on making the new management system a success for the fleet,\u201d said Shems Jud, EDF\u2019s Deputy Regional Director for the Pacific Coast. \u201cSpecifically, we\u2019re working with fishermen to address the projected costs of management, the fleet\u2019s responsibility for covering onboard observer costs, and a pre-existing 5% buyback fee. These are real challenges for the fleet, so we are advocating constructive new approaches that will help as many fishermen as possible to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this year, EDF joined with two West Coast fishing industry organizations (United Catcher Boats and Midwater Trawlers Cooperative) in an amicus brief requesting dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen&#8217;s Associations (PCFFA). PCFFA had filed suit to halt the West Coast groundfish trawl program.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\" \/>Read the full post &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1996,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[468],"tags":[472,597,72533,5205],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific","tag-catch-shares","tag-fisheries-management","tag-pacific","tag-trawlers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this year, EDF joined with two West Coast fishing industry organizations (United Catcher Boats and Midwater Trawlers Cooperative) in an amicus brief requesting dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen&#039;s Associations (PCFFA). PCFFA had filed suit to halt the West Coast groundfish trawl program.  Read the full post &raquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shems Jud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shems Jud\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shems Jud\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf\"},\"headline\":\"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":617,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Catch Shares\",\"Fisheries Management\",\"Pacific\",\"Trawlers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pacific\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/\",\"name\":\"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2011\\\/08\\\/09\\\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/\",\"name\":\"EDFish\",\"description\":\"Innovating for healthy oceans\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf\",\"name\":\"Shems Jud\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.edf.org\\\/people\\\/shems-jud\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/author\\\/sjud\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish","og_description":"Earlier this year, EDF joined with two West Coast fishing industry organizations (United Catcher Boats and Midwater Trawlers Cooperative) in an amicus brief requesting dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). PCFFA had filed suit to halt the West Coast groundfish trawl program.  Read the full post &raquo;","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/","og_site_name":"EDFish","article_published_time":"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00","author":"Shems Jud","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shems Jud","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/"},"author":{"name":"Shems Jud","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf"},"headline":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery","datePublished":"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/"},"wordCount":617,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Catch Shares","Fisheries Management","Pacific","Trawlers"],"articleSection":["Pacific"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/","name":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery - EDFish","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-09T15:22:25+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-25T17:06:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2011\/08\/09\/judge-dismisses-attempt-to-halt-west-coast-fishery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Judge Dismisses Attempt to Halt West Coast Fishery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/","name":"EDFish","description":"Innovating for healthy oceans","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/#\/schema\/person\/905e1cfb77cdb6a21874021629864edf","name":"Shems Jud","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/shems-jud"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/author\/sjud\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1996"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2934"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}