May 19, 2026 — A heatwave in the Pacific Ocean has triggered a legal requirement to protect loggerhead sea turtles, which are endangered species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In a bulletin issued Monday morning, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) stated that officials from their office notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries of its legal responsibility to close a large area of the Pacific coast off to swordfish drift gillnets.
A drift gillnet is a type of fishing net that is not fixed to the seabed but allowed to drift with the current and is used to catch fish by having them swim into it. Some drift gillnet fleets can be over 10 kilometers (roughly 6.2 miles) long, and several fleets may be fished by a vessel at once, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Now, with the unusually warm waters off Southern California, wildlife officials say the NOAA Fisheries must act before June 1 to avoid a lawsuit.