The American Sportfishing Association successfully filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in a federal lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Litigation pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenges a revised process for managing recreational fisheries for summer flounder, scup and black sea bass, which ASA said took several years to develop.
“By intervening in this lawsuit, ASA can respond to the claims of NRDC and help to safeguard the interests of our members that are threatened in this case,” ASA president Glenn Hughes said in a statement. “If NRDC obtains the relief that it seeks in this lawsuit, it will take away economically valuable recreational fishing access to these sustainably managed fisheries and likely stifle consideration of similar innovative management approaches in other federally managed fisheries across the country.”
The NRDC lawsuit arose out of the Recreational Reform Initiative, a collaboration between the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The initiative aims to address challenges stemming from limitations of recreational catch data that led to what ASA called “overly precautionary and restrictive regulations.”
ASA said a key tenet of the Modern Fish Act was allowing for “alternative management” approaches that differ from traditional management systems based on commercial fishing while still adhering to federal requirements to prevent overfishing.
The Recreational Reform Initiative produced an adjusted fishery management plan for summer flounder, scup and black sea bass known as Framework 17. It was adopted to address angler dissatisfaction over inconsistent catch limits.
NRDC asserts that Framework 17 conflicts with the federal requirement of annual catch limits. The court will establish a briefing schedule in the lawsuit. ASA said in the statement that it “looks forward to providing the court with the perspective of the recreational fishing industry and our nation’s anglers.”
