The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said Friday that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has no legal basis for relying on pessimistic statistical models to justify imposing costly federal regulations on fisheries and lobster fishers. made a judgment.

the court was held in it decision NMFS said it was “grossly wrong” in its interpretation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which allowed the agency to impose costly regulations on lobstermen to protect endangered whales. I could have done it. According to the court’s ruling, the regulations at issue would require lobster fishermen and their equipment to meet new standards in order for them to be relicensed by the federal government to access lobster fishing. there were.

According to the court’s ruling, the regulation will require lobster fishermen to “mark ropes, add weak links or use weak ropes, and increase the number of traps used in each ‘trawl’.” It is said that it will be The rule would impose “seasonal fishing restrictions” across much of the Gulf of Maine, according to the decision.

“Ultimately, if the ruling had not been overturned, our fishery would have ceased to exist,” said COO of the New England Fisheries Management Association (NEFSA) and head of the Maine Lobsterman Association. Vice President Dustin Delano told the Daily Caller News Foundation. .

NMFS issues licenses granting access to American fisheries. To that end, ESA is asked by the ESA to first prepare an opinion assessing the potential impact of fishing activities on protected species living in the same waters, according to the court’s ruling. The decision said NMFS could use statistical models based on the “best available commercial and scientific data” to predict possible impacts in the face of uncertainty.

In this case, NMFS gave “a dubious benefit” to protected right whale species “by relying on worst-case scenarios or pessimistic assumptions,” according to the court’s ruling. According to the ruling, the court held that NMFS could not recognize the “profit of doubt” as in this case by “indulging in worst-case scenarios and pessimistic assumptions to benefit the better side.” bottom.

NMFS’ proposed regulatory implementation plan could have cost the U.S. lobster industry up to $90 million in losses in its first six years, according to the court’s ruling. It says. (Related: Turner: Radical Wind Activist Blames Blue Collar Fishermen for Whale Death)

Maine lobster fisherman Jason Joyce said that if Joe Biden wins, he will be “dominated by environmental extremists who want to circumvent longstanding rules and impose sweeping reforms that harm coastal communities. It will happen,” he says.#RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/pGgOATwQmb

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 26, 2020

“NMFS rules could have disrupted symbolic trading based on distorted data analysis that is not justified by law,” Delano said. according to To Friday’s press release. “Lobster fishermen, like all New England fishermen, were shaped by an ethic of conservation long before federal regulations and environmental movements.”

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