United States Ninth Circuit

In a challenge to the district court's vacatur, under the terms of the consent decree, of a National Marine Fisheries Service regulation increasing the limit on incidental interactions between longline fishing boats and loggerhead turtles and replacing the increased limit with a lower limit that was previously in effect, the district court's order is affirmed, where 1) the district court did not err in holding that the procedural rulemaking requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Administrative Procedure Act did not bar implementation of the consent decree; and 2) the factual finding that a return to prior incidental take limits was more protective of loggerhead turtles was not clearly erroneous.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/14/2012
• Published 03/14/2012

Judges

• Goodwin

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Jason T. Morgan, Jennifer Scheller Neumann