Advocacy groups representing US fishermen are asking a US district court in Louisiana to uphold a 2018 federal ruling that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shouldn't be allowed to regulate offshore aquaculture under existing national fisheries laws.

On Monday Attorney George Kimbrell with the Center for Food Safety (CFS) urged a three-judge appellate panel in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to uphold its 2018 ruling, where CFS won its lawsuit challenging the US Department of Commerce’s (DOC) new federal rules that would have permitted, for the first time, offshore aquaculture in US federal waters.