Louisiana shrimpers are suing President Joe Biden.
The state’s shrimping industry is seeking to set aside a regulation implemented in 219 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that would require Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) to be used on certain trawling vessels.
Shrimpers claim this regulation is unnecessary and will only cost those who make their living off of Louisiana shrimp a big chunk of their income.
Shrimping is a $1.3 billion a year industry in Louisiana, supporting over 15,000 people. Shrimpers claim that the new rule could cost them up to $44 million.
They also say it’s unnecessary, asserting that in the last 55 years, there have “only been two documented interactions with sea turtles” and that “neither was harmed,” in a post on social media.
The new regulation was delayed from being implemented, first by a shortage of the necessary devices and then by the COVID pandemic.
Along with President Biden, United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and the NMFS are also named in the suit as defendants.