NRDC Defends Seafood Traceability In Court

NRDC and partners are going to court to ensure the federal government can keep working to end illegal fishing and seafood fraud, both of which are serious threats to ocean ecosystems. Specifically, we seek to intervene in a lawsuit that the commercial seafood industry brought to block a rule that will make the seafood supply chain more traceable. (See our intervention motion here.) The challenged traceability rule, which the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published last December, is a centerpiece of the U.S. government’s efforts to combat the influx of illegal seafood coming into our borders.

If the United States is to continue to play a leadership role in this fight, which NRDC believes it must, the traceability rule must be successfully implemented, and ultimately, expanded. That’s why we, along with our partners at Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity and co-counsel from Earthjustice, are asking to defend it as parties to the litigation.

At the heart of the traceability rule is a goal of thwarting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. IUU fishing, along with its sister set of illegal practices, seafood fraud—which is often used to conceal IUU product by mislabeling species origin or produce quantity—have spurred a global crisis that is pushing our oceans and fishing communities to the brink.

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