The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft environmental impact statement pertaining to endangered Steller sea lions in Western Alaska.
This is something NMFS produced only because a court ordered it to.
The agency, as you will recall, imposed tough restrictions on commercial fishing for mackerel and cod along the Aleutian chain beginning in 2011.
A bunch of angry industry players, as well as the state, sued NMFS, arguing the closures simply weren't justified on the notion that fishing boats were starving Stellers.
A federal judge upheld the fishing restrictions but said, tut-tut, the agency failed to do an EIS.
So here it is, a mere 1,281 pages in two volumes, for your reading pleasure.
Commercial fishermen are hoping this arduous EIS process might lead to a relaxation of some of the fishing restrictions.
Meantime, they have an appeal pending in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
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2 comments:
so in the news we have the IRS lying about things,DOJ is lying about things,Oboma is always lying. and the State Dept is lying about things, so you wonder could NMFS be lying. i think all the fishermen who voted for oboma should prove to the rest of us that they are not lying. i always will hold these fishermen responsible for every rule that comes down on the fishing industry. it can now be seen they will support a lying administration and be perfectly happy about it. this should all be taken into account when they run for any office or try to get on any fishing group board. for them the ends justifies the means.mike svenson
And the Endangered stellar sea lions are still Endangered.
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