A U.S. appellate court earlier this week upheld an injunction that bans the importation of seafood from Mexico caught with a drift gillnet.
However, the same court also requested that the U.S. Court of International Trade reconsider its initial ruling on the injunction after government officials claimed the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) can now be used to determine which products can be admitted.
The injunction is part of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by environmental organizations against the federal government to bar Mexican seafood caught in the Gulf of California with a gillnet. The plaintiffs claim the nets have led to the near extinction of the vaquita, a tiny porpoise native to the Gulf.
This week, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the case, said there could be as few as 10 vaquita left.
A CIT judge initially granted the injunction last July. The ban includes imports of shrimp and other Gulf seafood.
In its appeal, the government said it presented documentation to the CIT that an injunction is no longer necessary. Instead, the Seafood Import Monitoring Program could be used to determine the legality of Mexican imports.
However, the environmental organizations have countered arguing that SIMP does not necessarily ban illegally caught products from entry.
“The final rule implementing the SIMP describes the array of responses NOAA Fisheries may take, should it discover illegal fish, which ‘could include, but are not limited to’ re-delivery, exclusion from admission, or an enforcement action,” wrote Giulia C.S. Good Stefani, an NRDC lawyer in a memorandum sent to the CIT Judge Gary S. Katzman earlier this month.
In addition, the regulations also have exemptions for small-boat fisheries from reporting requirements.
Whether or not SIMP is a sufficient response in banning products caught by gillnet and protecting the vaquita will be Katzman’s decision.
“The court concludes that the alleged factual changes are such that the CIT, and not this court, should review them in the first instance,” U.S. Circuit Judges Jimmie V. Reyna, William C. Bryson and Kara Farnandez Stoll wrote on Monday, 20 May. “For that reason, the court remands to the CIT for further proceedings.”
