Greenpeace Foundation v. Mineta

The Hawaiian monk seal was listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), the monk seals’ critical habitat, contained a lobster fishery and a bottomfish fishery, both of which were governed by fishery management plans (FMP) implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (defendant). In a 1981 biological opinion (BiOp) on the lobster FMP, NMFS acknowledged that lobsters were a prey species for monk seals but found that there was insufficient data to determine whether decreased lobster availability would jeopardize monk seal survival. In 1996, NMFS conducted a new BiOp after amending the lobster FMP to allow fishermen to keep a wider range of lobsters. The 1996 BiOp (1) failed to acknowledge commercial data indicating that lobster stocks were declining; and (2) found that the lobster FMP did not jeopardize the monk seals’ continued survival despite circumstantial evidence that lobster was an important part of the monk seals’ diet. At the time, there was no conclusive proof that lobsters were essential for the monk seals’ survival. In the bottomfish fishery, NMFS BiOps dating back to 1986 indicated that there were monk seal takings in the fishery, meaning that monk seals were being harmed or killed. Regardless, NMFS failed to take steps to prevent continued monk seal takings. Greenpeace Foundation (Greenpeace) (plaintiff) sued NMFS, arguing that NMFS had violated the ESA by (1) failing to ensure that the lobster FMP regulations did not harm monk seals; and (2) failing to prevent monk seal takings in the bottomfish fishery.