WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether a Florida fisherman ran afoul of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a federal law aimed primarily at white-collar crime, by throwing three undersized red grouper back into the Gulf of Mexico.

The case arose from a 2007 search of the Miss Katie, a fishing vessel whose captain was John L. Yates. A Florida field officer, John Jones, boarded the ship at sea and noticed fish that seemed less than 20 inches long, which was under the minimum legal size of red grouper at the time.

Mr. Jones, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and a federal deputy, measured the fish and placed the 72 he deemed too small in a crate. He issued a citation and instructed Mr. Yates to take the crate to port for seizure.

But Mr. Yates threw the fish overboard and had his crew replace them with larger ones. A second inspection in port found only 69 undersized fish and aroused suspicions, and a crew member eventually told law enforcement officials what had happened.

After a jury trial, Mr. Yates was convicted of violating a part of the 2002 law that makes it a crime to conceal or destroy “any record, document or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct or influence” a federal investigation. He was sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment.

On appeal, Mr. Yates argued that the law’s provision, often called its “anti-shredding” provision, did not apply to fish. The title of the provision, he noted, is “destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations and bankruptcy.”

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