Alaska U.S. District Court ruling from March 11, 2025 finding that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) can continue to rely on nearly 20-year-old environmental studies to inform federal management of the massive pollock trawling industry in the Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands.
The federal lawsuit challenges fisheries management that fails to address climate change and unlawfully permits pollock trawlers to catch thousands of salmon as bycatch annually
National Marine Fisheries Service did not use best available science or develop conservation alternatives to protect ocean habitats in the Gulf of Alaska as required under federal law
Oceana argues that the National Marine Fisheries failed to meet obligations under the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act to protect corals, sponges and other seafloor habitats from bottom trawling.
Earthjustice, representing Oceana, prevails in lawsuit to recover Pacific sardines to protect whales, sea lions, seabirds, and other ocean animals that rely on the small fish for food
Recent environmental rulings from the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority have revealed a dangerous agenda, but we still have strong legal tools to protect people and the planet.
Conservation Council of Hawai‘i and Michael Nakachi bring this action for declaratory and injunctive relief to remedy the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failure to protect threatened oceanic whitetip sharks from harm caused by fisheries in the Western Pacific Ocean. Specifically, NMFS has failed to complete required consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) regarding the effects of NMFS’s continued authorization of two fisheries managed under the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pacific Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific Region on the oceanic whitetip shark. By failing to complete consultation, NMFS is failing to ensure that these activities do not jeopardize the continued existence of the species, in violation of Section 7 of the ESA and its implementing regulations.
Andrea Treece, Attorney, Oceans Program, Earthjustice: “Certainly, behind the scenes, the CEOs of the car industry are having an influence, but they’re not writing the rules for their own industry.”
