ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20107
No(s). 21-2509 (JEB) (D.D.C. Sep 8, 2022) (Boasberg, J.)

A district court denied summary judgment for a Maine lobstermen group in a challenge to NMFS' 2021 biological opinion (BiOp) that both authorized a series of federal fisheries, including the lobster fishery, and implemented a conservation framework designed to reduce the fisheries' impact on right whales. The group argued that the BiOp and associated framework made scientific errors that led them to overestimate the fishery's effects on the right whale population, and that NMFS' final rule restricting the use of fishing lines arbitrarily relied on the flawed BiOp. The court found that NMFS reasonably explained how it estimated the right whale population and modeled that population into the future by drawing on what it rationally assessed was the best available data and submitting its methods for peer review. It denied the group's motion for summary judgment, and granted NMFS' cross-motion.