Court rules U.S. unlawfully authorized seafood imports that threaten Māui dolphin

New York, N.Y. —

The United States Court of International Trade today ruled that the U.S. government’s decision to allow seafood imports from two New Zealand fisheries violated federal law.

The legal decision comes after a New Zealand environmental group, Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders NZ, filed suit against the U.S. government to protect Māui dolphins, the world’s most imperiled marine dolphins. The group is represented by Earthjustice and Law of the Wild.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that the U.S. prohibit seafood imports from any foreign fishery that excessively harms marine mammals. The two New Zealand fishing fleets have driven the critically endangered Māui dolphin close to extinction, with estimates that only approximately 40 to 50 individuals remain. The Court concluded the U.S. government ignored these threats when authorizing the imports. The imports are no longer authorized.

“The U.S. now has to do what the New Zealand Government has failed to do — keep Māui and Hector’s dolphins in the west coast North Island safe from indiscriminate fishing, which is otherwise pushing the dolphins to extinction. It’s now New Zealand’s turn to protect the whole dolphin habitat in its own laws,” said Christine Rose of Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders.

Fifty years ago, there were an estimated 2,000 Māui dolphins. Since then, the population has plummeted by over 97% while the U.S. government has allowed imports from the fisheries to continue.

The fishing fleets operating along the West Coast of New Zealand’s North Island don’t intentionally catch Māui dolphins, but the marine mammals get caught when fishers target commercial seafood species in large nets that hang in the water — sometimes for days — or drag through the sea, scooping up everything in their path. Even if fishers free dolphins from the nets before they drown, they can suffer serious health impacts when nets keep them from surfacing to breathe.

As the lawsuit pointed out, “Even low levels of human-caused mortality can outpace the population’s natural growth rate, leading to its extinction.”

“We are thrilled about the Court of International Trade’s decision, and what it means for the Māui dolphin. This decision affirms what the law intends — that the U.S. government must not facilitate the extinction of marine mammal populations,” said Earthjustice attorney Sabrina Devereaux.

“As the Court recognized, the U.S. government cannot be allowed to violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act by simply rubber-stamping assertions from foreign nations that marine mammals are adequately safeguarded. We will continue to hold the government accountable under the Act so that the Māui dolphin is not driven to extinction in New Zealand fisheries,” said Law of the Wild attorney Brett Sommermeyer.

This case follows a 2022 decision from the United States Court of International Trade banning imports from the same New Zealand fisheries due to harm to Māui dolphins. The U.S. government issued a new approval of imports last year, despite a continued population decline of 3-4% per year. Today’s court ruling invalidates that new approval.