US court issues temporary bans for some New Zealand seafood species

The U.S. Court of International Trade has ordered an import ban via preliminary injunction for nine seafood species from New Zealand, citing concerns regarding protections for the critically endangered Maui dolphin.

In the ruling, the court placed an import ban on nine species of seafood – snapper, terakihi, spotted dogfish, trevally, warehou, hoki, barracouta, mullet, and gurnard derived from New Zealand’s West Coast North Island multi-species set-net and trawl fisheries. The court issued a preliminary injunction pending final resolution, finding evidence that New Zealand has potentially not matched U.S. standards under the Marine Mammal Protection Act when protecting the Maui dolphin, which has between 48 and 64 individuals remaining in the wild …

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