Center for Biological Diversity v. National Marine Fisheries Service

Center for Biological Diversity filed a suit in the federal district court for the District of Maryland asserting that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to issue a timely 12-month listing determination on the organization’s petition to list the smalltail shark. The complaint alleged that the smalltail shark—which is “found in estuaries and nearshore waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Brazil to the Northern Gulf of Mexico”—had experienced an 80% population decline in the past three decades and that “its continued survival is threatened by climate change, overfishing, habitat degradation, and contamination exposure.”