Two federal lawsuits filed on Dec. 19 by the environmental group Oceana contend that the federal government has failed to disclose adequate information regarding the deaths of killer whales and other marine mammals that were entangled in commercial trawling gear in Alaska waters.
“Public access to information is essential to hold the government accountable and ensure U.S. fisheries are managed sustainably,” said Tara Brock, Pacific legal director and senior council for Oceana. “The unlawful withholding of information by the Fisheries Service related to the deaths of whales, fish, and other ocean life is unacceptable. People have the right to know how commercial fisheries impact marine wildlife.”
Oceana, represented by Earthjustice, said the cases against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were filed in courts in California and Alaska after the fisheries service provided inadequate responses to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests where Oceana sought records related to the marine mammals and unwanted fish caught while trawler crews were fishing for other species.
“The Fisheries Service is entrusted with protecting our treasured marine life and managing our shared marine resources on the public’s behalf,” said Rumela Roy, an attorney with Earthjustice. “Yet the agency is blocking public access to crucial information about how U.S. fisheries impact marine mammals, fish, and our oceans. We are going to court to uphold the Freedom of Information Act’s basic premise – that the government is accountable to the people and can’t keep us in the dark.”
The lawsuits stem from four separate FOIA requests made by Oceana between 2021 and 2023, with Oceana requesting records, photographs, and videos related to bycatch by trawl vessels in California and Alaska. NMFS either denied these requests or provided heavily redacted records – showing blacked out, pixilated, or blurred photos. By doing so, NMFS relied on an irrational and overly broad interpretation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act by claiming the photos and other information were confidential, Oceana said.
The 32-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Alaska by Earthjustice said the redactions unlawfully deprive Oceana and the public of important information regarding the agency’s management of North Pacific groundfish fisheries and the trawl industry’s harmful effects on marine mammal species.
NMFS is a federal agency within NOAA charged with managing, conserving and protecting living marine resources within 200 nautical miles of the United States coastline.
These resources include whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Oceana asked the court to order NMFS to provide Oceana in unredacted form all non-exempt records and the reasonably segregable portions of any lawfully exempt records in response to Oceana’s FOIA requests within 10 days of the court’s order.
In the 28-page California lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Oceana similarly asked the court to provide Oceana all non-exempt records and reasonably segregable portions of any lawfully exempt records in response to Oceana’s FOIA request, again within 10 days of the court’s order.
Oceana noted that trawl gear drags large, weighted fishing nets on or near the ocean floor. These huge nets catch orcas, humpback whales, porpoises, seals and other marine mammals, which can drown when caught up in a trawl net, and often frequently die even if tossed back into the ocean.
