New Zealand Seafood Restrictions Sought to Protect Maui Dolphin

Importing certain seafood from New Zealand caught using gillnets or trawling should be blocked because they put a critically endangered dolphin species at risk of extinction, environmental groups say in a new suit filed Thursday against the federal government in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

The Māui dolphin is the most endangered marine dolphin in the world, with just 57 individuals remaining as of 2016, according to Sea Shepherd New Zealand and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The cause of its drastic decline and the biggest threat to the species’ survival is the incidental capture of dolphins in gillnet ...