Bjorn Jensen v. The National Marine Fisheries Service (Noaa)

This is an appeal from an order of the district court dismissing appellants’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The action below was for a declaratory judgment and an injunction against the enforcement of a regulation of the International Pacific Halibut Commission [Commission], and of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1937, 16 U.S.C. §§ 772b, 772d, 772e, which provide criminal penalties for the violation of the Commission regulations. Appellees are National Marine Fisheries Service, and Philip Roedel, Director, who seek to enforce the regulations, and the United States.

Appellants are owners and operators of fishing boats who fish in the Pacific Ocean by means of otter trawls. They catch fish by dragging nets along the ocean floor. They complain of a regulation enacted by the Commission which prohibits them from keeping halibut which they catch in their nets incidentally to other fish upon which they concentrate their efforts. The regulation requires them to return the halibut to the sea after they are caught in the nets. In 1971 the scientific staff of the Commission recommended that the trawlers be permitted to keep a certain percentage of the halibut taken in…