August 10, 2026 — For years, environmental activists have spent untold sums of donor dollars suing the federal government to compel enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA.) Groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute have repeatedly hauled the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into court, ostensibly in defense of some of the world’s most marketable creatures.
They demanded audits of marine mammal protection policies in thousands of fisheries across the globe—and they got them. More than 2,500 fisheries, to be exact. Rather than working with governments whose fisheries were found to be under performing, they aggressively insisted on draconian bans on products from deficient fisheries and got those too. Two hundred and forty, to be exact. Along the way, they have built a cottage industry around raising donations through a crusading persona that sees them as Flipper’s savoir, while at the same time petitioning the government to reimburse them for the costs of… suing the government.
This pattern of litigation abuse was recently investigated by the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations when it held a hearing titled “The Profit Engine Driving Environmental Nonprofits.” The hearing focused on the longstanding practice of activist organizations suing the federal government and then seeking reimbursements of their attorneys’ fees and litigation costs.