Massachusetts lobster fishing limits to protect whales restored by appeals court

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday restored a U.S. agency rule restricting lobster and Jonah crab fishing off the Massachusetts coast to protect endangered whales, rejecting a claim that the agency did not deserve deference under a recent landmark Supreme Court case.

In a 3-0 decision, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the National Marine Fisheries Service acted lawfully in banning from Feb. 1 to April 30 annually the use of vertical buoy lines in a 200-nautical-mile area of federal waters called the Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge.

The Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association sued to block the rule, saying a Dec. 2022 appropriations rider reflected the U.S. Congress' intent not to extend emergency protections for North Atlantic right whales from earlier that year.

A federal district judge declared the rule void last March.

But in Thursday's decision, Circuit Judge Seth Aframe called that a mistake because the rule was "in place" when the rider took effect, though it was not being enforced at that time.

He said "the same threat to the right whale described in the 2022 emergency rule findings persisted beyond the 2022 foraging season and therefore ... required additional regulatory actions."

The lobstermen's group also said extending the rule would violate a June 2024 Supreme Court decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, that rejected court deference to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

Aframe disagreed, saying the circuit court was merely interpreting the December 2022 rider's text with no deference to what the fisheries' service thought it meant.

Lawyers for the lobstermen's group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Conservation groups and the Biden administration urged upholding the rule.

Jane Davenport, a lawyer for Defenders of Wildlife, called the decision a major victory for protecting right whales. Erica Fuller, a lawyer for the Conservation Law Foundation, said the court "made a reasoned decision based on the best available science."

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The judges on Thursday's panel, and all active 1st Circuit judges, are Democratic appointees.

The case is Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association Inc v Menashes et al, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 24-1480.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)