Fishery Management

Our attorneys have advised corporations, federal agencies and Indian tribes on fishery management issues. Our experience includes both East and West Coast fishery issues: we are very familiar with issues related to the listing of Atlantic Salmon as an endangered species and appropriate regulation of aquaculture facilities and we have acted as counsel to federal agencies and Indian tribes with regard to Columbia River salmon restoration and protection strategies.
Sample representations include:

• Advising a state coastal resources agency on fisheries management issues, including fish and shellfish harvest limits;
• Local counsel for the State of Maryland in a case brought by the State of Maryland against the Virginia Marine Resources Commission over crabbing rights in the Chesapeake Bay regarding the constitutionality of Virginia regulations regarding prohibiting Maryland from taking blue crabs in Virginia waters. The regulations were invalidated in federal court;
• Participating in the development of blue crab management planning in the Chesapeake Bay Program;
• Representing citizens groups in challenging construction of new dam on the Penobscot River in Maine that would interfere with recovery of Atlantic Salmon population;
• On behalf of public water supply projects, investigating and litigating the effects of water withdrawals, or altered flow regimes, on downstream dish populations, particularly striped bass and American shad in the context of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA);
• Representing environmental groups and Indian tribe in Maine in negotiating for removal of old hydro electric dams to restore anadromous fisheries to the nation's premier Atlantic Salmon run.;
• Assessing impacts on fisheries in the context of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and NEPA; and
• Advising international marine fishery organization on sustainability certification for largest commercial fishery in United States.