Opinion ID: 3395195
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Lacey Act Exemption

Text: The Lacey Act exempts conduct from prosecution if it was “activity regulated by a fishery management plan in effect under” the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 16 U.S.C. § 3377(a) (emphasis added). A Magnuson-Stevens Act plan is quite different from a 11 plan created by the Commission. Magnuson-Stevens Act plans are created by one of eight regional councils (or occasionally the Secretary of Commerce) composed of various state and federal officials. Id. §§ 1852(a)(1), (b)-(c), 1854(c). The regional councils themselves are creatures of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, id. § 1852(a)(1), not an interstate compact like the Commission. And unlike Commission plans, regional councils’ plans must include federally-mandated provisions and are subject to final approval by the Secretary of Commerce. Id. §§ 1853(a), 1854(a). In any event, to resolve these appeals we need only decide whether the Commission’s plan (which the district court treated as a Magnuson-Stevens Act plan) regulates the captains’ activity of bass fishing in federal waters. See supra footnote 1. To that question we now turn.