Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/16/96
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has concluded that the science used to determine the National Marine Fisheries Service's 1994 commercial quota for summer flounder was accurate and the best available, the Commerce Department, NMFS' parent agency, announced today.
The circuit court's ruling of Feb. 2, in Richmond, Va., reverses the decision of U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar of Norfolk, Va., who agreed with the plaintiffs' assertion that the science was inaccurate and too conservative, and that the 1994 commercial quota should be readjusted. The plaintiffs are a group of fish processors from the Mid-Atlantic region. A group of environmental, conservation and sportsfishing organizations filed a motion in support of the federal government's position.
The circuit court found the fisheries service used the best scientific information available when setting the 1994 quota based on recommendations of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council made up of fishermen, scientists and state and federal fishery managers. Accordingly, the Council and agency may adjust the current quota in light of this decision.
Because the summer flounder fishery is overfished, the Council sets an annual commercial quota to achieve specified decreases in fishing effort in order to rebuild this depleted stock of fish. In recommending the 1994 commercial quota, the Council used scientific information from the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., that involved a range of fish population estimates for that year.
The Council selected an estimate that would assure the target reduction in fishing level was achieved and would err on the side of conservation. Agency and Council officials believed this to be a prudent approach, given the many uncertainties about the stock and the fishing patterns in the upcoming fishing year.