No. 24-1480

MASSACHUSETTS LOBSTERMEN'S ASSOCIATION, INC.,

Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.

EMILY MENASHES, Assistant Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in her official capacity; NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE; JEREMY PELTER, Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, in his official capacity,*

Defendants, Appellants,

CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION, INC.; DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE; WHALE AND DOLPHIN CONSERVATION SOCIETY,

Defendants. ________________ No. 24-1481

MASSACHUSETTS LOBSTERMEN'S ASSOCIATION, INC.,

Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.

CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION, INC.; WHALE AND DOLPHIN CONSERVATION SOCIETY; DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE,

Defendants, Appellants,

NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE; JEREMY PELTER, Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, in his official

* Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2), Emily Menashes has been substituted for Janet Coit as Acting Assistant Administrator, and Jeremy Pelter has been substituted for Gina M. Raimondo as Acting Secretary. capacity; EMILY MENASHES, Assistant Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in her official capacity,

Defendants. __________________

APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Gelpí, Kayatta, and Aframe, Circuit Judges.

Christopher Anderson, with whom Todd Kim, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice, J. Brett Grosko, Taylor A. Mayhall, Andrew M. Bernie, and Sam Duggan, Attorney-Advisor, Office of General Counsel, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were on brief, for government appellants. Andrea Joy Campbell, Attorney General for Massachusetts, Matthew Ireland, Assistant Attorney General, Energy and Environment Bureau, and James A. Sweeney, State Trial Counsel, for Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, amicus curiae. Jane P. Davenport, with whom Daniel M. Franz, Defenders of Wildlife, Erica A. Fuller, and Conservation Law Foundation were on brief, for conservation group appellants. Daniel J. Cragg, with whom Samuel P. Blatchley, Robert T. Dube Jr., and Eckland & Blando LLP were on brief, for appellee.

January 30, 2025

- 2 - AFRAME, Circuit Judge. The principal issue in these appeals is whether Appellants National Marine Fisheries Service and two of its leaders (collectively, the "NMFS") acted lawfully in issuing a final rule seasonally banning from certain federal waters off Massachusetts the vertical buoy lines used in lobster and Jonah crab trap fishing. See 89 Fed. Reg. 8333 (Feb. 7, 2024) (the "Final Rule").1 The ban runs from February 1 to April 30 each year. Id. at 8334. The NMFS issued the Final Rule to reduce the risk of injury or death to North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species that forages in the subject waters during these months and can become entangled in the buoy lines.

Appellee Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association, Inc. ("MALA") persuaded the district court that the Final Rule conflicts with a temporary statutory authorization for lobster and Jonah crab fishing contained in a rider to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 ("CAA"). See Pub. L. No. 117-328, Div. JJ, 126 Stat