U.S. Government Agrees to Halt Seafood Imports Linked to Marine Mammal Deaths

Legal Action Against Seafood Imports

Environmental and conservation groups have taken legal action against the United States government to ensure that internationally sourced seafood does not threaten whales or dolphins. The lawsuit targets the National Marine Fisheries Service and other U.S. government officials. The goal of the litigation is to stop seafood imports from foreign fisheries that utilize fishing techniques resulting in the entanglement or drowning of marine mammals.

Specifically, the lawsuit sought to halt imports from eight foreign fisheries identified as incidentally entangling and killing an excessive number of marine mammals. The U.S. is currently the world's largest importer of seafood.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act

The legal challenge is based on the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires the U.S. government to ban seafood imports from foreign fisheries that kill or injure marine mammals. While the U.S. has long maintained laws requiring fishers operating within its own waters to avoid ensnaring marine mammals as incidental "bycatch," conservation groups argue these standards were not applied to imports.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Fisheries Service failed for decades to require that imported seafood meet the same protection standards followed by U.S. fishers to prevent the deaths of whales and dolphins.

Settlement and Agreement

Following years of advocacy and litigation led by the NRDC, the U.S. government has reached an agreement to address these gaps. This agreement requires the United States to stop importing seafood that does not meet U.S. standards for the protection of marine mammals.