Fishing Company Loses Wildlife Refuge Appeal

WASHINGTON (CN) - The federal government did not illegally take the value from Palmyra Pacific Seafoods by instituting a wildlife refuge in the waters surrounding the Palmyra

coral reef south of Hawaii, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled.

The Palmyra-based commercial fishing company developed the island and received an exclusive fishing license for the area, but the circuit found that the license extended only to the "emergent land" on the island.

The refuge does not impede on the company's land, the court ruled, but it bans commercial fishing in the "tidal lands, submerged lands and waters" surrounding the island.

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