ELR Citation: 42 ELR 20058
No(s). 11-15783 (9th Cir. Mar 14, 2012)

The Ninth Circuit upheld a consent decree vacating a portion of a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regulation increasing the limit on incidental interactions between longline fishing boats and loggerhead turtles and reducing the incidental take limits back to preexisting 2004 levels. The consent decree reasonably reduced the incidental take limits temporarily while the NMFS determined whether to change the legal status of loggerhead turtles from threatened to endangered. The consent decree does not purport to make substantive changes to the fishery regulations, so the rulemaking provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the APA do not apply. And the lower court did not clearly err in finding that a return to lower incidental take limits is more protective of loggerhead turtles.