ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20037
No(s). 23-5026 (D.C. Cir. Mar 1, 2024)

The D.C. Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for commercial fishermen in a challenge to an NMFS rule implementing an amendment to a fishery management plan for reef fish resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The fishermen argued the amendment arbitrarily relied on an economic analysis that NMFS had previously rejected, and that it lacked the catch limits and accountability measures required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. A district court granted summary judgment for NMFS. The appellate court found NMFS failed to provide an explanation for its decision to use the net-economic-benefit analysis to compare alternatives that it had previously rejected when it adopted a prior amendment. It remanded without vacatur for NMFS to address whether the economic analysis underlying the amendment was sufficiently different from the analysis it previously used that has since been discredited.