For decades, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) has “given the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the authority to require monitors on commercial fishing boats,” Cause of Action says.
The MSA “explicitly requires the owners of certain classes of fishing boats to pay for their own monitors,” but herring fishermen are not included on that list. As a result, for years NOAA itself paid for the inspectors on herring boats.
However, recently NOAA “suddenly decided that the herring fishermen must now pay for the cost of third-party monitors.” A group of herring fishermen brought suit against the decision, arguing that their exclusion from the original list meant they should not be liable for those payments.
At issue in the case is what is known in U.S. administrative law as “Chevron deference,” stemming from the 1984 case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. The Legal Information Institute says that the case established “judicial deference given to administrative actions.”
Under this principle, federal agencies are often given considerable latitude in deciding how they will carry out and interpret federal laws, as NOAA is doing in the Loper case.
In a press release on Tuesday, Cause of Action Institute Executive Director James Valvo said the case “brings the livelihoods of family-operated fishing enterprises front and center, as their ability to fish herring is in jeopardy due to unlawful government overreach.”
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