State of Alaska v. Jane Lubchenco

The western Distinct Population Segment of the Steller sea lions (“wDPS”) live in the great northern Pacific Ocean region off Alaska, and they were declared endangered in 1997. More recently, in two of the seven sub-regions they inhabit, they have been experiencing population declines because they have been showing signs of nutritional stress. In 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS” or “the agency”) therefore limited commercial fishing in those waters, causing representatives of the fishing industry and the State of Alaska (“Plaintiffs”) to file this action challenging the limitations.

The plaintiffs’ principal argument is that the NMFS violated the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) because it based the fishing restrictions on declines in sub-regions rather than in the entire population of the endangered species. Plaintiffs also contend the agency utilized the wrong standards in measuring the effects of continued fishing and failed to find a sufficient causal link between authorizing fisheries and the population decline. We hold that use of subregions did not violate the ESA and that the agency utilized appropriate standards to find that continuing previous…