The U.S. Court of International Trade has dismissed a 2020 lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by Sea Shepherd New Zealand and the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which had hoped to win protections for the critically endangered Maui dolphin population by preventing the importation of fish from New Zealand.
Sea Shepherd’s complaint stemmed from a claim that bycatch of Maui dolphins during fishing off New Zealand’s west coast was so detrimental to the animals that it amounted to a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which would require the United States to ban New Zealand seafood imports.
In response to the suit, the court posed a temporary injunction on the importation of nine species in 2020, but the injunction was lifted in April 2024. New Zealand Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones told Radio New Zealand the ban had cost New Zealand exporters around NZD 2 million (USD 1.3 million, EUR 1.1 million).
These losses prompted the New Zealand government to become a defendant in the lawsuit to demonstrate the protections it is putting in place, pledging to invest NZD 40 million (USD 27 million, EUR 23 million) in efforts to meet MMPA standards.
In August, U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann ruled New Zealand's government had taken sufficient action, including banning trawl fishing and a requirement that fisherman use video to monitor bycatch, to adhere to the MMPA, and dismissed the case.
Nonetheless, Katzmann emphasized the dolphins’ precarity. There are currently believed to be 40 to 60 Maui dolphins left and achieving the goal of stabilizing this population is a tall order, Katzmann wrote in his decision. Though the case is now resolved, Katzmann wrote, “the fate of the Maui dolphin is not.”
“Today’s disposition…is far from a bill of health for a species teetering on the brink of extinction," Katzmann said.
The Maui dolphin is a subspecies of the native-to-New Zealand Hector’s dolphin. They are the world’s smallest dolphins, and their preference for shallow waters make them especially susceptible to getting caught in fishing nets.
In August 2024, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Animal Welfare Institute, also sued the U.S. government in the Court of International Trade, alleging that regulators are not doing enough to protect the dolphins under the MMPA.
