Conservation Group Again Seeks Import Ban on Fish From New Zealand

New Zealand conservation non-profit Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ challenged the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2024 comparability findings on New Zealand's West Coast North Island set-net and trawl fisheries, alleging a host of analytical and legal violations committed by the agency. The group said the comparability findings fail to enforce the Marine Mammal Protection Act, further endangering the Maui dolphin -- an endangered species of which only an estimated 43 remain (Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders v. National Marine Fisheries Service, CIT # 24-00218).

The suit is the second of its kind related to the preservation of the Maui dolphin after a case from fellow New Zealand conservation groups Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society petered out earlier this year (see 2409110027). Sea Shepherd's suit, which saw the trade court impose an injunction on imports from the New Zealand fisheries at issue, ended after NMFS issued the 2024 comparability findings.

Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders said they are now taking up the mantle of shielding the Maui dolphin in U.S. courts, noting that since Sea Shepherd's case was initially filed in 2020, the population of the Maui dolphin has dropped by about 30%.

The non-profit said the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires the U.S. government to ban the import of fish from a foreign fishery that harms marine mammals in excess of what would be allowed in the U.S. While the NMFS said in its findings that New Zealand fisheries don't catch and kill Maui dolphins in excess of U.S. standards, the complaint alleged a host of errors in the agency's determinations.

The brief said the agency failed to apply "several U.S. marine mammal bycatch standards," noting that the statute doesn't allow fisheries to have any more than a "negligible impact on marine mammal population." This equates to "no more than one Maui dolphin death every 77 years," yet the figures show that New Zealand's fisheries kill one dolphin every 10 to 20 years -- "nearly five times the permissible negligible impact standard," the brief said.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires mortality levels in fisheries to "be reduced to a level near zero." New Zealand has no such comparable requirement, the brief said.

The non-profit also argued that the NMFS failed to consider key ways New Zealand's regulatory limit on Maui dolphin mortality in its fisheries differs from U.S. regulatory limits. The agency used an "outdated and overly optimistic Maui dolphin population estimate to evaluate New Zealand's standards," the brief said. The agency also compared New Zealand's Maui dolphin bycatch monitoring program with the wrong U.S. standards, the complaint alleged.

Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders added that the comparability findings legally operate as a certification that the two New Zealand fisheries meet U.S. bycatch standards for all marine mammals, but the NMFS never looked into whether harm to other marine mammals exceeds U.S. standards.