NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday in a case brought by Louisiana shrimpers challenging a 2019 federal rule that requires them to install Turtle Excluder Devices on their boats.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments Aug. 4 in Louisiana Shrimp Association v. Lutnick, a case that puts more than 30 years of regulatory history under the microscope.

The Louisiana Shrimp Association, along with individual shrimpers John Brown, Larry L. Helmer Jr. and Penny V. Zar, argues that the National Marine Fisheries Service acted arbitrarily when it eliminated a longstanding tow-time exemption and required inshore skimmer trawlers to use Turtle Excluder Devices. They say the agency offered no new scientific data to justify the change.

"This entire regulation is based on the death of one turtle—or maybe two, the agency isn't sure—in North Carolina. It's the opposite of rational, reasoned decision making based on scientific evidence," said Scott St. John, who argued the case on behalf of the Louisiana Shrimp Association.

During arguments, Judge Andrew Oldham pressed the government attorney with a pointed question: "Can you show the work?" The exchange underscored the court's apparent concern that the agency's change in position needed to be backed by scientific evidence.

Sarah Harbison of the Pelican Institute also weighed in on what she sees as the broader stakes.

"People who care about how rules are made and enjoy eating Louisiana shrimp should care about this case," Harbison said, "bureaucrats in cubicles in Washington are driving up the price of shrimp, creating an opening for cheaper, foreign imports and ending a way of life for many on the Gulf Coast. Louisianans deserve a say and a process based on scientific evidence, when an entire industry could collapse based on a guess."

Since 1987, NMFS had allowed inshore shrimpers to use tow-time restrictions instead of the devices, finding they were poorly suited to shallow, debris-filled bayous and marshes. The agency reaffirmed that position as recently as 2013, citing "highly uncertain ecological benefits" weighed against the potentially significant economic harm of a mandate.

When NMFS reversed course in its 2019 rule, it pointed to no new turtle mortality data specific to Louisiana or the Gulf. The mortality percentages the agency used were generated at a non-public 2015 workshop of NMFS employees in West Virginia and traced back to a single 2010 study reporting the deaths of one or two turtles caught in North Carolina gillnets, a different fishing method than the skimmer trawls used by Louisiana shrimpers.

Louisiana's own data was not used in the decision. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has run a bycatch study spanning 55 years and 128,781 trawls, recording only two turtle interactions in that entire period, both of which were released alive.

In 2021, Louisiana formally asked NMFS to reverse the mandate or exempt state waters based on that data. NMFS has not acted on that petition in the four years since.

NMFS acknowledged in its 2019 rulemaking that the requirement could have significant adverse economic effects, estimating that roughly 178 part-time vessels, about 32% of those affected, could be forced to stop operating. The Louisiana Shrimp Association is represented by Harbison and St. John.