National Marine Fisheries Service

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.