78-03-A4
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Swordfish
TranscriptRemember swordfish, that tasty, relatively inexpensive fish that used to be so abundant? Nowadays, of course, even if you can find swordfish on an occasional restaurant menu, the price is right up there among the most expensive delicacies. You can thank the bureaucrats of the Federal Food and Drug administration for that. The story begins almost 10 years ago, in 1969. Acting on scares of mercury poisoning from swordfish in Japan and Iraq, the F.D.A. virtually banned swordfish in the United States. The swordfish, you see, absorbs a certain amount of mercury normally found in the ocean. After the ban, the F.D.A. began hearings to decide just what was a permissible level of mercury in swordfish, but it never completed the hearings and no final rule was issued. In 1974, the F.D.A. did publish a proposed "guideline" to establish a level of Point Five (.5) parts-per-million for mercury in fish and shellfish. At that time, many experts submitted comments on the proposed guideline, questioning the scientific and legal basis for such a low permissible level of mercury. Some argued that this level frequently exists naturally in fish and shellfish in their normal environment. Though the F.D.A. never issued its "guideline" in final form, it enforced it energetically. Using so-called "emergency" procedures it began clamping down on the fishing companies one at a time. The swordfishing business in the United States is composed of rather small companies and most don't have the resources to fight back against the bureaucrats. The result has been disaster for them. Since 1969, the swordfishing business has lost approximately 90 percent of its employment and production capacity. At the same time, swordfish has been virtually forced off the market and the consumer price of seafood protein has shot up. Those consequences didn't seem to bother the enforcers at the F.D.A who have continued their actions, primarily in Boston and Florida, where the remaining swordfishermen sail from. Recently, they went after Anderson Seafoods, a Florida firm. This time, the fishermen decided to fight back. They banded together assessed themselves to build a legal defense fund and Anderson Seafoods filed a class action suit in federal court asking that the F.D.A be restrained from enforcing its mercury "guideline" because "it has never been promulgated in final form; it has no basis in law or scientific fact; and it is otherwise arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion." Now that's a mouthful, but it was the beginning of a successful action for the swordfishermen. They asked a public interest law firm, the Pacific Legal Foundation, to enter the case and Pacific Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the fishermen. Result? The federal district court ruled in favor of the fishermen and against the Federal Drug administration. Who know, maybe the bureaucrats will think twice before they go after the little guys. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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