Continued refusal of Fisheries Service to follow court orders puts anchovy at risk of overfishing and threatens whales, sea lions, dolphins, salmon

Anchovies are a critically important food fish for larger ocean predators including whales, sea lions, salmon, and brown pelicans.

The Fisheries Service established a multi-year, unchanging catch limit of 23,573 metric tons that would not change even if the anchovy population collapses. From 2009–2015, scientists documented an anchovy population collapse as thousands of sea lions starved to death on U.S. West Coast beaches and brown pelicans abandoned their chicks due to an inability to…

A federal judge’s decision marks a promising turning point for the anchovy and the health of California’s ocean ecosystem.

Ruling finds Fisheries Service disregarded best available science and failed to prevent overfishing

Court order on the Western Pacific anchovy case filed by Earthjustice and Oceana

In response to a final rule issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Oceana, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against the Fisheries Service for its continued failure to prevent overfishing, use the best available science or account for the food needs of ocean animals in managing anchovy population.

Judge Koh ruled that NMFS failed to base their annual catch limit (25,000 mt), acceptable biological catch (25,000 mt), and overfishing limit (100,000 mt) for anchovy on the best available scientific information. At the time NMFS promulgated its Catch Rule, the best available science showed that the anchovy population was likely less than 32,000 mt and anchovy-dependent predators like the California brown pelican and California sea lion had already experienced multi-year starvation and breeding failures due to lack of food. Judge Koh also found that NMFS failed to demonstrate that the rule would prevent overfishing, as required by the Magnuson Act. Because she found it failed to prevent overfishing, she did not reach the claim that the rule also failed to achieve optimum yield by accounting for the food needs of marine predators. Finally, she held that our challenge to the previously established overfishing limit and acceptable biological catch (from which the annual catch limit is derived) was timely under the 9th Circuit Ore. Trollers decision.

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