In 2016, President Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument under the Antiquities Act. The monument, which encompasses 4,913 square miles off the coast of New England, marked the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean. Recently, in Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a challenge to the designation. (2018 WL 4853901 (D.D.C. Oct. 5, 2018)).
Although the U.S. Supreme Court has developed a common law framework for resolving disputes over interstate water resources, the Court has never resolved a dispute over groundwater resources. Mississippi v. Tennessee, a case over the use of groundwater by the City of Memphis near the MS-TN border, is the first case of its kind.
On September 25, a coalition of fishing and public interest groups, represented by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), won a lawsuit challenging National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rules that would have permitted finfish aquaculture operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Animal welfare has become a hot button issue in the aquaculture industry over recent years. There is great debate both in the United States and internationally over what degree of welfare protection, if any, farmed fish should be entitled to during their lives and at slaughter.
