Sea Turtle Protection Small Boat Carveout Upheld by Court (1)

The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld a rule that exempted certain types of shrimp trawlers from using turtle escape devices, in a loss for environmental groups that claimed the new regulation would kill imperiled sea turtles.

“The rule was reasonably explained and was a logical outgrowth of the proposal that preceded it,” the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in an unpublished per curiam judgment.

Environmental groups claimed in a 2021 lawsuit that the National Marine Fisheries Service abruptly reversed course from its 2016 proposed rule, which suggested that all shrimp trawlers should be required to use ...