ELR Citation: ELR 20174
No(s). 03-16842 (9th Cir. Aug 24, 2005)

The court holds that the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') 2002 fishing quota for darkblotched rockfish was based on an impermissible construction of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. In adopting a rebuilding plan for an overfished species, the time period must be "as short as possible." Moreover, Congress set a presumptive cap of 10 years on any rebuilding period, subject to exceptional circumstances beyond the agency's control. Here, the NMFS determined that the minimum rebuilding period was 14 years due to the biology of the fish. Thus, the 10-year cap did not apply. The Agency, however, relied on an interpretation of the Act set forth in the 1998 National Standards Guidelines that added "one mean generation time" to the minimum rebuilding period, making the total rebuilding period for the darkblotched rockfish 47 years. It then raised the fishing level harvest from 130 metric tons to 168 metric tons. This quota reflects no proportionality between the needs of a species and of fishing communities, and it lacks statutory justification. The lower court decision upholding the agency's decision was therefore reversed. The NMFS' fishing limits for three other species of Pacific groundfish, however, were upheld.