Lawyers representing the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency on Monday asked an Alaska judge to significantly extend the timeline as well as consolidate two separate requests for restraining orders filed by American Seafoods' subsidiaries over mounting fines that have allegedly held up more than 25 million pounds of frozen US seafood from reaching customers on the US East Coast.

The court case stems from a dispute between American Seafoods and its shipping affiliates and the CBP over what the US agency alleges is a violation of the Jones Act related to the companies' use of an unusual method for transporting fish from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to the US East Coast known as the Bayside Program.