From SeafoodMedia, April 4 - The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found that New Zealand's seafood management standards meet US requirements, based on a comparability assessment in January this year.

The US Court of International Trade has lifted a preliminary injunction that had prevented the export of certain New Zealand fish to the US.

The case was brought by environmental organisation Sea Shepherd, which claimed that the standards for protecting critically endangered Maui dolphins in New Zealand were inconsistent with US standards.

But the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently found that New Zealand's seafood management standards meet US requirements and issued a favourable comparability assessment for New Zealand in January this year.

Trade in the nine fish species affected will now resume as the court has lifted the preliminary injunction.

The preliminary injunction could have affected up to $2 million in seafood exports to the United States from fish caught off the west coast of the North Island, with affected species including snapper, trevally, lip fingerling bass, hake, blue whiting, flatfish, mullet and greenfin.

The resumption of normal trade between the two sides is still weeks away.