ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20187
No(s). 1:21-cv-00275-LEW (D. Me. Oct 16, 2021) (Walker, J.)

A district court granted in part a fishing union's motion for preliminary injunction in a challenge to NOAA's partial seasonal closure of a Maine lobster fishery to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The union argued the rule was an arbitrary and capricious application of the Marine Mammal Protection Act because the closure was unrelated to the Act's statutory mandate to protect whales and other marine mammals. The court found the rule imposed a substantial closure of the fishery based on "markedly thin" statistical modeling, which did not seem to indicate that right whales congregated in or passed through the fishery with enough frequency to render it a "hotspot" for whale and buoy line co-occurrence. It enjoined NOAA from implementing the closure pending a ruling on the merits.