Saving Seafood

Trump administration revives rollbacks of species protections from first term

November 20, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s administration moved Wednesday to roll back protections for imperiled species and the places they live, reviving a suite of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations during the Republican’s first term that were blocked under former Democratic President Joe Biden.

The changes include the elimination of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s “blanket rule” that automatically protects animals and plants newly classified as threatened. Government agencies instead would have to craft species-specific rules for protections, a potentially lengthy process.

Environmentalists warned the changes could cause yearslong delays in efforts to save species such as the monarch butterfly, Florida manatee, California spotted owl and North American wolverine.

“We would have to wait until these poor animals are almost extinct before we can start protecting them. That’s absurd and heartbreaking,” said Stephanie Kurose with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full article at ABC News

Trump moves to roll back Biden’s strengthening of ESA protections

November 20, 2025 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed rolling back changes made to strengthen the Endangered Species Act (ESA) under former U.S. President Joe Biden, reverting parts of the law to the language used during Trump’s first term.

“This administration is restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent, and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a release. “These revisions end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, delivering certainty to states, Tribes, landowners, and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Administration revises Endangered Species Act regulations to strengthen certainty, reduce burdens and uphold law

November 19, 2025 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced four proposed rules to restore Endangered Species Act regulations to their proven 2019 and 2020 framework. The actions advance President Donald J. Trump’s directives to strengthen American energy independence, improve regulatory predictability and ensure federal actions align with the best reading of the law.

The proposals, two of which were issued in coordination with NOAA Fisheries would revise Biden administration regulations finalized in 2024 that expanded federal reach, created unnecessary complexity and departed from the statute’s clear language. These actions implement Executive Orders 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” and 14219, “Department of Government Efficiency,” along with Secretary’s Order 3418, which direct agencies to remove regulatory barriers that hinder responsible resource development and economic growth while maintaining core conservation commitments.

The four proposed rules are:

  • Listing and critical habitat (50 CFR part 424):

The agencies jointly propose to restore the 2019 regulatory text governing listing, delisting and critical habitat determinations. The proposal ensures decisions are based on the best scientific and commercial data available while allowing transparent consideration of economic impacts. It reestablishes the longstanding two-step process for designating unoccupied habitat, restores clarity to the definition of “foreseeable future” and reinstates flexibility to determine when designating critical habitat is not prudent.

  • Interagency cooperation (50 CFR part 402):

The agencies jointly propose to return to the 2019 consultation framework by reinstating definitions of “effects of the action” and “environmental baseline,” removing the 2024 “offset” provisions and restoring section 7 procedures consistent with the statutory text. These changes respond directly to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron deference standard and reaffirmed that agencies must adhere strictly to the law as written.

  • Threatened species protections (50 CFR part 17; section 4(d)): 

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to eliminate the “blanket rule” option and require species-specific 4(d) rules tailored to each threatened species. This approach reflects the single best reading of the statute under Loper Bright and ensures that protections are necessary and advisable to conserve each species without imposing unnecessary restrictions on others. It also aligns service policy with NOAA Fisheries’ longstanding species-specific approach.

  • Critical habitat exclusions (50 CFR part 17; section 4(b)(2)):

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to reinstate its 2020 rule clarifying how economic, national security and other relevant impacts are weighed when determining whether to exclude areas from critical habitat. The revised framework provides transparency and predictability for landowners and project proponents while maintaining the service’s authority to ensure that exclusions will not result in species extinction.

The 2024 regulatory packages had reimposed provisions previously deemed inconsistent with the ESA’s statutory text. The Administration’s proposed rules would replace those provisions with standards that reflect decades of implementation experience, consistent judicial precedent and the Supreme Court’s reaffirmation that agencies must follow the law as written.

The proposed rules will be published in the Federal Register and will be available for public inspection on November 19 at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/current.

The public is encouraged to submit comments during the 30-day comment period beginning November 21 at https://www.regulations.gov by searching the following docket numbers:

  • FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0039 (Section 4)
  • FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0044 (Section 7)
  • FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0029 (Section 4(d))
  • FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0048 (Section 4(b)(2))

Conservation groups plan lawsuit over hatcheries

September 18, 2025 — Two Seattle area conservation groups say they intend to sue the federal government for failure to protect salmon, steelhead and orcas from hatchery programs.

The announcement from Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and The Conservation Angler (TCA) contends that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is funding and authorizing hatcheries in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam under the Mitchell Act, relying on a flawed 2024 Biological Opinion that contains scientifically indefensible conclusions and violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Mitchell Act, passed by Congress in 1938, is intended to advance the conservation of salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Columbia River Basin. Mitchell Act funding has supported the establishment, operation and maintenance of hatchery facilities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as monitoring and evaluation of hatchery programs, screening irrigation intakes, and improving fish passage.  NOAA Fisheries has administered the Mitchell Act since 1970, distributing funds to tribes and Oregon, Washington and Idaho to produce hatchery salmon and steelhead to support fisheries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmentalists fail to prove Oregon dam kills coho salmon

August 22, 2025 — While a controversial southern Oregon dam may delay the migration of a threatened species of salmon, the impact isn’t significant enough to violate federal environmental laws, a federal judge in Portland ruled on Thursday.

“This court concludes that plaintiffs have not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant is liable for ‘take’ of Oregon Coast coho salmon under the Endangered Species Act,” U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut wrote in the 35-page findings of fact and conclusions of law.

A coalition of environmental conservation groups and fisheries organizations led by WaterWatch of Oregon sued the Winchester Water Control District in 2020, accusing the district of violating the Endangered Species Act through its operation of the Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. The groups argued the dam causes illegal take of Oregon Coast coho salmon by blocking access to spawning habitat and attracting fish to impassable areas of the dams with leaks.

“This is a disappointing decision, but it doesn’t change the fact that coho salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act and Winchester Dam needs to come out,” Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch’s southern Oregon program director, said in a statement. “It’s a flawed and outdated dam and the court recognized the dam has significant issues. Our campaign to remove the dam continues.”

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

Salmon and steelhead extinction threshold science, and the ocean fish of northeast Oregon

August 21, 2025 — The Nez Perce Tribe and its collaborators will try to eke out a few more years’ survival for Tucannon River Chinook.

“But,” Jay Hesse says, “we also had to ask: What about all the other populations? So in 2021, we started modeling quasi-extinction for all the Snake River spring/summer Chinook and steelhead populations listed under the Endangered Species Act. The results are giving us a better picture of real conditions, and a stronger case for the urgency of action.”

Mr. Hesse is the director of Biological Services for the Nez Perce Department of Fisheries Resources Management.

Some years ago, federal scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries developed the “quasi-extinction threshold,” which the NOAA uses in planning.

For Snake River Chinook salmon and steelhead, the threshold is fewer than 50 adult fish in a population returning from the ocean for four consecutive years. Below that floor, the population’s continued existence can no longer be scientifically assumed or predicted. It is an emergency signal, flashing red and near black.

The Nez Perce Tribe is applying this science to management of populations below or near the extinction threshold, as well as to public education and long-term science.

Nez Perce Fisheries provided me two maps from its upcoming extinction threshold report for Snake River spring/summer Chinook, and steelhead, updated through 2024 fish returns. These maps show some of the findings, but much else in it will deserve attention.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Report: Hawaiʻi’s False Killer Whales Trending Toward Extinction

August 14, 2025 — Thirteen years ago, the Main Hawaiian Islands’ dwindling population of false killer whales was officially declared endangered, a move intended to help their numbers recover after years of getting hooked and tangled in nets, mostly set by nearshore commercial fishers.

But instead of rebounding, a new report finds, the vulnerable group has only continued to shrink at a troubling pace.

The report, published Thursday in the journal Endangered Species Research, estimates that the unique population of false killer whales inhabiting the waters around the main islands has shrunk from about 184 individuals in 2012, when it was listed under the Endangered Species Act, to 139 members in 2022.

That’s an average population loss of 3.5% a year at a time when federal and state fisheries managers were supposed to be taking meaningful steps to better protect the mammals and boost their numbers.

Read the full article at Civil Beats

CALIFORNIA: First salmon in nearly 100 years found in Northern California river

July 30, 2025 — An endangered species has returned to its Northern California river habitat for the first time in almost a century, wildlife officials said.

Winter-run chinook salmon — one of nine species considered to be most at risk of extinction by NOAA — have been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1994. But new concerns for the species came to light after California’s historic statewide drought between 2012 and 2016, when the fish all but vanished from the McCloud River, which flows through Siskiyou and Shasta counties.

The construction of Shasta Dam above the 77-mile-long waterway had already been causing problems for the species since the late 1930s, cutting them off from the mountain streams kept cool by melting snow where they like to spawn. But when the dam lost its own cold water pool during the drought, increasing water temperatures and reduced oxygen rates led to the deaths of 95 to 98% of eggs and recently hatched salmon incubating in their nests, according to NOAA.

So it came as a surprise when, earlier this month, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed reports of adult Chinook salmon in the river near Ash Camp. Officials saw one female exhibiting spawning behavior and “guarding her nest,” while multiple smaller males were observed nearby, competing to spawn themselves, the agency wrote of the July 15 sighting.

Read the full article at KCRA

US lawmakers consider shielding sturgeon farmers from ESA restrictions

July 28, 2025 — Legislators in the U.S. Congress are considering legislation that would exempt American sturgeon farmers from Endangered Species Act (ESA) restrictions, although opponents say the legislation would open the door to Chinese and Russian imports.

The issue stems from a 2022 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposal to list four species of sturgeon – Russian, ship, Persian, and stellate – under the ESA. The rule was decried by the caviar industry at the time for not differentiating between sustainably farm-raised sturgeon and wild populations. With other species, such as Atlantic salmon, U.S. regulators have found ways to allow aquaculture operations to continue to trade fish legally even though it was listed as endangered in the Gulf of America, opponents said at the time.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Ninth Circuit maintains protected status for arctic ringed seals

July 14, 2025 — The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed a lower court’s order blocking the state of Alaska’s efforts to delist ringed seals under the Endangered Species Act.

“National Marine Fisheries Service reasonably determined that new climate change projections were consistent with those it had considered at the time of its 2012 listing decision,” wrote the panel in a five-page order.

Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Circuit Judges Holly Thomas and Ana de Alba joined Bill Clinton-appointed Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jed Rakoff on the panel that reviewed the case and published a per curiam opinion.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the federal government in 2008 seeking to protect the ringed seal, Pusa hispida, along with the bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus, and the spotted seal, Phoca largha, under the Endangered Species Act.

Citing the increasing strain of climate change, the federal government granted the ringed seal protected status in 2012, which the Ninth Circuit first affirmed four years later.

The state of Alaska petitioned and then sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, seeking to delist the marine mammal on Nov. 15, 2022.

The state known as the Last Frontier criticized the wildlife protections that span hundreds of millions of acres, interfering with the North Slope’s industrial economy as well as hunting.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service