A trade group and a California-based processing company filed a motion in a U.S. federal court last week seeking to intervene in a lawsuit brought on by Oceana against NOAA Fisheries.
The Oceana suit, filed in June, claims the government agency is not following the best available science to set the catch limit on the anchovy stock in Northern California. That suit was in response to the catch limit NOAA Fisheries set in May after an order from a federal judge stemming from an earlier lawsuit by Oceana.
The current catch limit of 23,573 metric tons was established based on the anchovy’s status as a monitored stock. NOAA Fisheries does not set annual catch limits on monitored stocks. Instead, they establish the limit at 25 percent of its overfishing limit…