The international ocean conservation advocacy organisation, Oceana has filed two lawsuits against the National Marine Fisheries Service – part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – for withholding information about the injury and death caused to marine life by trawling in commercial fisheries off both California and Alaska.

The cases were filed this week after the Fisheries Service provided what Earthjustice – the environmental law outfit representing Oceana – has called ‘inadequate responses’ to multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests where Oceana had sought records related to marine mammal and fish injuries or deaths caused by trawling between 2021 and 2023.

Oceana had asked the Fisheries Service to provide information related to both marine mammals and unwanted fish caught while fishing for other species.

The lawsuits involve four separate FOIA requests between 2021 and 2023 in which Oceana requested records, photographs, and videos related to bycatch in trawl fisheries off California and Alaska. 

Oceana and Earthjustice claim that in response, the Fisheries Service ‘either denied the request of heavily redacted most of the records’ by either blacking out, pixelating, or blurring texts and images. The Fisheries Service had, at the time, cited the Magnuson Stevens Act and claimed the photos and other information ‘were confidential.’

Oceana’s lawsuit claims that reliance on the Act, the nation’s fishery law, was both “irrational” and “an overly broad interpretation.”  

“Public access to information is essential to hold the government accountable and ensure US fisheries are managed sustainably,” said Tara Brock, Oceana’s Pacific legal director and senior counsel. “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.”

One lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court of Alaska and one has been filed in the US District Court of Central California. FOIA provides the public with the right to request records from any federal agency. In response, agencies are required to disclose any information requested under FOIA unless it falls under specific exemptions. 

Such exemptions are limited to those protecting national security or when disclosure is prohibited by another law. Oceana and Earthjustice argue that in this case, neither scenario is applicable to the request for information on marine life deaths caused by trawling between 2021 and 2023. 

As one of the largest international advocacy organisations dedicated to ocean conservation in the world, Oceana works to rebuild abundant and biodiverse oceans through science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the world’s fish catch. A major focus of its mission is to end bottom-trawling – one of the most damaging and indiscriminate commercial fishing methods in through which trawlers drag large, weighted fishing nets on or near the ocean floor, scooping up almost everything in their path.

It’s often that these huge nets will catch orcas, humpback whales, porpoises, seals, and other marine mammals – all of which breathe air and can drown when caught in a trawl net. Unwanted fish caught in these nets – known as bycatch – also frequently die, even if they are tossed back into the ocean.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Fisheries Service provided only partial information in response to Oceana’s request for records related to marine mammals and unwanted fish caught while fishing for other species, claiming confidentiality.

“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 US 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.”

In the Fisheries Service’s latest Ecosystem Status Reports on Alaska and Aleutian Island waters, it was noted that ocean temperature has been on the ‘warm side’ for a good part of the past year, noting that winter sea-surface temperatures between 2023 and 2024 were among the 10 warmest years since 1900 in the Aleutians.

As an indicator of ecosystem status, scientists have collected data and information on species trends within the northern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Of note this year, commercial salmon landings were some of the lowest since 1985 in the Gulf of Alaska, while southeast Alaska juvenile pink salmon were “smaller and had lower energy” density. 

In September this year, the NOAA Fisheries Service recommended two projects to reduce bycatch in waters in Alaska for funding from its funding partners. Each year the organisation provides approximately $2.4 million to researchers in search of innovative solutions to bycatch.

Oceana’s position is to end bottom-trawling to provide one of the most effective methods to stop bycatch, end overfishing, and stem and reverse habitat destruction through sustainable fishing practices instead.

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