California Sea Urchin Commission v. Bean
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
883 F.3d 1173 (2018)
- Written by Alex Ruskell, JD
Facts
In 1987, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (service) began an experimental translocation program to protect endangered sea otters. Under the plan, a new sea-otter colony would be created far enough away from the main population so that an environmental catastrophe like an oil spill would not endanger the entire species. In 2012, after the new colony failed to take off, the service ended the program. The California Sea Urchin Commission (commission) (plaintiff) sued, arguing that the service lacked the authority to end the program. The district court ruled in favor of the service, and the commission appealed. Specifically, the commission claimed that the service’s creation of a management zone for commercial fishing, its obligation to use feasible nonlethal means to remove otters from the management zone, and the exemption for the incidental taking of otters within the management zone became mandatory once the relocation project was started. Consequently, the commission argued, the service could not end the program once it began.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gould, J.)
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