Import ban sought for fish linked to dolphin deaths

The petition cited apparent problematic fishing practices near New Zealand, which reduced the dolphin population to almost 2,000 over the past 45 years.    The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has received a petition to ban imports of commercial fish or products from fish caught with commercial fishing equipment that results in incidental deaths or serious injury to certain dolphins in excess of U.S. standards, the agency announced.
   NMFS on Feb. 6 received the petition from Sea Shepherd Legal, Sea Shepherd New Zealand Ltd., and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
   The petition requested the U.S. ban imports of all fish and fish products caught in set nets or trawls inside the Maui dolphin’s range and from either the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island or the Cook Strait, unless the fish are affirmatively identified as having been caught with a gear type other than set nets or trawls, or as having been caught outside the dolphin’s range, NMFS said.
   Petitioners asserted that set net and trawl bycatch have reduced the Maui dolphin from a population of 2,000 in 1971 to 111 in 2004 and to 55 by 2011.
   In August 2016, NMFS published a final rule implementing the fish and fish product import provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
   The agency stated in the preamble to the rule that it may consider emergency rulemaking to ban imports of fish and fish products from an “export or exempt fishery having or likely to have an immediate and significant adverse impact on a marine mammal stock.”
   NMFS will consider public comments as it evaluates the petitioners’ request.
   The agency said it is asking for comments on several issues, including the adequacy of existing commercial fishing regulations throughout the range of the Maui dolphin, whether such measures can be considered comparable in effectiveness to the U.S. regulatory program, and whether the apparent reduction in the Maui dolphin population due to commercial fishing meets the MMPA standard of “immediate and significant adverse impact on a marine mammal stock.”
   Comments must be submitted by 5 p.m. March 27.