Opinion ID: 2763492
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Southern Resident Orca

Text: NMFS concludes in the BiOp that continued CVP/SWP operations are likely to jeopardize the viability of the Southern Resident orca. 2009 Salmonid BiOp at 573–74. The logic supporting this conclusion is relatively simple. The orca population at issue has fewer than ninety members, and so NMFS felt compelled to scrutinize “even small effects on the fitness of individuals that increase the risk of mortality or decrease the chances of successful reproduction.” Id. at 573. Winter-run and spring-run Chinook are a critical prey base 54 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE for the Southern Resident orca. Id. According to NMFS, reduction in populations of this prey-base jeopardize the Southern Resident orca because, for example, less food requires whales to spend too much energy foraging and “insufficient prey could cause whales to rely upon their fat stores, which contain high contaminant levels.” Id. NMFS concluded that continued CVP/SWP operations threaten the viability of winter-run and spring-run Chinook. Id. at 574–75. This determination led it to also conclude that these operations jeopardize the Southern Resident orca. Id. The district court reversed and remanded this conclusion. It held that NMFS did not consider all relevant factors of the problem because it failed to discuss a seemingly contrary finding it made, in a BiOp issued on May 5, 2009, that commercial ocean “harvest of salmon would not jeopardize the Southern Resident Killer Whales.” See In re Consolidated Salmonid Cases, 791 F. Supp. 2d at 864–65. The district court’s conclusion is incorrect because NMFS did discuss the 2009 Orca BiOp in the Salmonid BiOp, showing that it did not “entirely fail[] to consider” an aspect of the problem. See State Farm, 463 U.S. at 43. NMFS discussed the 2009 Orca BiOp as part of its baseline analysis. See 2009 Salmonid BiOp at 218–21. NMFS clarified that the 2009 Orca BiOp—unlike the 2009 Salmonid BiOp—does not consider the long-term health of Chinook on the continued viability of the Southern Resident orca, but rather analyzes the year-to-year impact of commercial harvest on the whales’ short-term food supply. Id. at 218. In this way, NMFS distinguished the two BiOps as dealing with different time frames. NMFS’s discussion of how findings in the 2009 Orca BiOp relate to findings in the 2009 Salmonid BiOp, although brief, is sufficient to show that NMFS considered the 2009 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE 55 Orca BiOp when developing the 2009 Salmonid BiOp. This consideration satisfies NMFS’s obligations under State Farm. See 463 U.S. at 43.