Groups file new lawsuit to prevent extinction of Earth’s rarest marine dolphins

Groups file new lawsuit to prevent extinction of Earth's rarest marine dolphins

Suit seeks U.S. ban on New Zealand seafood as fishing fleets harm rare Māui and Hector's dolphins

Contacts

Sabrina Devereaux, Earthjustice, (206) 659-6294, [email protected]

Brett Sommermeyer, Law of the Wild (South Africa), +27 79 889 1675, [email protected]

Earthjustice and Law of the Wild filed a legal action last week on behalf of the grassroots group Māui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders to protect the rarest marine dolphins in the world. The new legal claim asks the court to order seafood import protections to prevent extinction of New Zealand's Māui dolphins and their close relatives, Hector's dolphins.

Background on this case:

This recent lawsuit follows on the heels of an action Earthjustice and Law of the Wild filed in December 2024 on behalf of Māui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders to enforce the U.S Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires the U.S. government to ban seafood imports from any foreign fishery that excessively harms marine mammals.

The 2024 suit contended that New Zealand fishing fleets are driving the critically endangered Māui dolphin to extinction, with estimates of only 30 to 50 left on Earth, and very few breeding females. Fifty years ago, there were 2,000 Maui dolphins. Since then, the population has plummeted by over 97 percent.

The closely related Hector's dolphins are also dwindling - only about 15,000 Hector's dolphins remain, down from a population of about 50,000 in 1975.

The fishing fleets operating along the West Coast of New Zealand's North Island don't intentionally catch Māui or Hector's dolphins, but the marine mammals get caught when fishers target commercial seafood species. The fishers use large nets that hang in the water for days or drag through the sea, scooping up everything in their path. Even if the dolphins are freed from the nets and do not drown, they can suffer serious injuries while struggling to reach the surface to breathe.

In August 2025, after reviewing all the evidence, the Court of International Trade ruled that the U.S. government's decision to allow seafood imports from two of New Zealand's west coast fisheries was arbitrary and unlawful.

But the victory was short-lived. Just days later, the U.S. government issued another decision, allowing all seafood exports from New Zealand to the United States. This decision permits the U.S. market to support not just the fisheries impacting critically endangered Māui dolphins, but also equally problematic fisheries that catch Hector's dolphins and other marine mammals. The U.S. government's decision that New Zealand's bycatch levels are "sustainable" is based on the same flawed reasoning and evidence that the Court of International Trade had previously found severely deficient The new legal action filed last week challenges that decision.

Māui and Hector's dolphins' biology makes them especially vulnerable to human impacts; they live about 25 years, and females don't reach sexual maturity until around eight years old and produce just one calf every two to four years. Time is of the essence for these imperiled species and as the complaint states, "NMFS may not whistle past the graveyard while New Zealand allows its fisheries to drive the Māui and Hector's dolphin populations toward extinction."

About Earthjustice

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.