Brower

The Secretary of Commerce appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Earth Island. 1 The district court held that the Secretary’s Initial Finding, triggering a change in the dolphin-safe label standard, was not in accordance with the law and constituted an abuse of discretion because the Secretary failed to (1) obtain and consider preliminary data from the eongressionally mandated stress studies and (2) apply the proper legal standard to the available scientific information. We affirm.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

This ease concerns congressional efforts to protect dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (“ETP”), which covers between five and seven million square miles and extends from the southern Californian to the South American coastlines. In the ETP, yellowfin tuna schools swim below dolphin groups, which are visible as they break the surface to breathe and leap into the air. Since 1959, fishermen in the ETP have pursued and chased the air breathing dolphin groups in order to catch the yel-lowfin tuna below. In this year-round process, referred to as “setting on dolphins,” the fishermen use explosives, chase boats, and helicopters to…