Earth Island Institute v. Mosbacher

785 F. Supp. 826, 92 Daily Journal DAR 3007, 22 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20990, 13 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2368, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1866, 1992 WL 29984
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedFebruary 3, 1992
DocketC 88 1380 TEH
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 785 F. Supp. 826 (Earth Island Institute v. Mosbacher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Earth Island Institute v. Mosbacher, 785 F. Supp. 826, 92 Daily Journal DAR 3007, 22 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20990, 13 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2368, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1866, 1992 WL 29984 (N.D. Cal. 1992).

Opinion

ORDER

THELTON E. HENDERSON, Chief Judge.

On January 10,1992 this Court issued its order regarding the secondary embargo provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. On January 27,1992, pursuant to Federal Defendants motion for Clarification, we issued an order amending our January 10, 1992 order. In light of a stipulation filed by the parties on January 30, 1992, we once again amend our original order as reflected herein. This Amended Order supercedes the January 10, 1992 and January 27,1992 orders and constitutes the operative order in this case. This Amended Order does not alter the effect of the prior orders, but simply consolidates those orders.

This matter came before the Court on plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment, Preliminary and Permanent Injunction. The parties argued this motion before the Court on September 23, 1991. Appearances were made by Joshua Floum for plaintiffs and Charles Shockey for defendants.

Plaintiffs brought this motion in order to enforce the secondary embargo provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). We believe that the proper interpretation of the secondary embargo is that intermediary nations must provide to the United States government, certification and proof that they have banned from importation into their countries the same commercial fish products that the MMPA bans from direct importation into the United States from harvesting nations. Failure to provide this certification and proof results in a ban of all yellowfin tuna and tuna products from those intermediary nations. For this reason, as discussed more fully below, we GRANT plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction, and we DENY plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and plaintiffs’ motion for permanent injunction.

I. BACKGROUND

Tuna fishermen kill dolphins when they use purse seine fishing nets in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP). As a result of growing public sensitivity to this incidental killing of dolphins and other marine mammals, Congress enacted the Marine Mammal Protection Act 16 U.S.C. § 1371 et seq. This case is a battle between plaintiffs — the public interest group Earth Island Institute, the Marine Mammal Fund and David R. Brower (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Earth Island”) and defendants — the Secretary of Commerce, *829 the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Assistant Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the Secretary of the Treasury (hereinafter collectively referred to as “the Government”) over the requisites of the MMPA.

On August 28, 1990, this Court issued an order interpreting one provision of the commercial fish products ban created by the MMPA (“Aug. 28, 1990 Order”). This order enjoined the Secretary of the Treasury from allowing the importation of certain tuna products from nations which do not meet statutory measures of comparability in their incidental killing of dolphins during tuna fishing operations (“primary embargo”).

Congress enacted a second provision of the commercial fish ban to respond to a perceived need to prevent “tuna laundering” — a situation in which an embargoed nation sells its tuna to an intermediary nation which, in turn, sells the otherwise banned tuna to the United States. This provision creates a secondary embargo against intermediary nations who wish to import tuna and tuna products into the United States (“secondary embargo”).

Earth Island now moves for a preliminary injunction, a permanent injunction and summary judgment in their favor, to compel the Government to comply with the mandates of the MMPA’s secondary embargo provisions. Earth Island alleges that the nonenforcement of the secondary embargo is causing irreparable harm because there continues to be a market for tuna caught with purse seines by nations subject to the primary embargo and, as a result, unacceptable numbers of dolphins die.

The relevant section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, § 1371(a)(2), reads as follows:

(2) Marine mammals may be taken incidentally in the course of commercial fishing operations and permits may issue therefor under section 104 subject to regulations prescribed by the Secretary in accordance with section 103. In any event it shall be the immediate goal that the incidental kill or incidental serious injury of marine mammals permitted in the course of commercial fishing operations be reduced to insignificant levels approaching zero mortality and serious injury rate; provided that this goal shall be satisfied in the case of the incidental taking of marine mammals in the course of purse seine fishing for yellowfin tuna by a continuation of the application of the best marine mammal safety techniques and equipment that are economically and technologically practicable. The Secretary of the Treasury shall ban the importation of commercial fish or products from fish which have been caught with commercial fishing technology which results in the incidental kill or incidental serious injury of ocean mammals in excess of United States standards. For the purposes of applying the preceding sentence, the Secretary—
(A) [Text deleted]
(B) [Text deleted]
(C) shall require the government of any intermediary nation from which yellowfin tuna or tuna products will be exported to the United States to certify and provide reasonable proof that it has acted to prohibit the importation of such tuna and tuna products from any nation from which direct export to the United States of such tuna and tuna products is banned under this section within sixty days following the effective date of such ban on importation to the United States.

Plaintiffs and defendants agree that this section of the MMPA creates both a primary and a secondary embargo. They disagree, however, over the scope of the two embargoes.

Plaintiffs contend that the scope of the secondary embargo is broader than the scope of the primary embargo. Plaintiffs’ position is that the primary embargo prohibits the importation of tuna and tuna products harvested with purse seine nets in the ETP from nations that fail to meet the comparability standards created by the MMPA (“embargoed nations”). In contrast, plaintiffs argue, the secondary embargo prohibits the importation of all tuna and tuna products from intermediary na *830 tions, unless the Secretary obtains proof that the nation has acted to prohibit the importation of tuna and tuna products from embargoed nations.

The rationale offered for the differing scopes of the two embargoes is that Congress had different purposes in mind in enacting the statutes. According to plaintiffs, the purpose behind the enactment of the primary ban in 1972 was to change foreign fishing methods in order to protect marine mammals. The secondary embargo, on the other hand, was enacted in 1988 to bolster the effectiveness of the primary embargo by preventing circumvention of this embargo through the use of intermediary nations.

Earth Island argues that the defendants are not complying with the mandates of the MMPA.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Defenders of Wildlife v. Dalton
97 F. Supp. 2d 1197 (Court of International Trade, 2000)
Earth Island Institute v. Brown
17 F.3d 1241 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
785 F. Supp. 826, 92 Daily Journal DAR 3007, 22 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20990, 13 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2368, 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1866, 1992 WL 29984, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/earth-island-institute-v-mosbacher-cand-1992.