This Key Tool Could Protect Whales and Dolphins Worldwide. Advocates Want the U.S. to Use It.

Stronger U.S. enforcement of import rules is being urged as a tool to protect whales and dolphins worldwide, after advocates filed a lawsuit seeking to stop seafood imports linked to bycatch. Organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) sued the U.S. government in the U.S. Court of International Trade to halt imports from eight countries accused of exceeding U.S. marine mammal injury and death limits. The plaintiffs argue regulators are not properly enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the action targets imports from Argentina, Ecuador, India, Norway, Taiwan, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Vanuatu. Advocates cite an estimated 650,000 marine mammals killed as bycatch each year. NOAA Fisheries, the lead agency under the law, is named as a defendant and declined to comment due to pending litigation.