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This month, a federal judge upheld the ruling on a highly controversial Gulf red snapper management plan called Amendment 40, or sector separation. The amendment divides the recreational red snapper quota, equal to 51.5 percent of the total allocation, between private recreational anglers (57.7 percent) and licensed charter captains (42.3 percent). Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) filed its lawsuit against implementation of Amendment 40 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico on April 22, 2015, following a 10-7 vote by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to pass the amendment in October 2014. In its lawsuit submitted to the Eastern District Court of Louisiana, CCA charged that Amendment 40 constitutes agency action that is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law and in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority or limitations. Amendment 40 will take effect for up to three years.
