US environmental groups plan to sue to relist gray whales under Endangered Species Act

A coalition of environmental groups has threatened legal action against the United States National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS), alleging the agency's failure to consider protections for Eastern Pacific gray whales under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Gray whales, once teetering on the brink of extinction due to relentless whaling, saw a dramatic population drop from approximately 20,500 in 2019 to a mere 14,526 in 2023, a decline of nearly 30% in just four years, according to the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The recent population decline, PEER contends, can be attributed to a confluence of threats, including ship strikes, entanglements in fishing gear, and the devastating impacts of climate change on the Arctic food web upon which gray whales rely. PEER asserts that the whale population is "starving" to death as a result. Although whaling had decimated their numbers, the species was delisted in 1994 following ESA protections, which proved instrumental in their recovery.

However, given the alarming recent population collapse, environmental organizations petitioned NMFS in 2025 to once again list the whales under the ESA, a move that would grant them enhanced protections. The agency was expected to deliver a 12-month finding by the end of August 2026. When the group received no response, they promptly filed a notice of intent to sue the NMFS for alleged violations of the ESA.

The groups argue that the Trump administration has once again flouted one of the nation's foundational environmental statutes by neglecting to respond to their August 2025 petition to relist the gray whales under the ESA's protective umbrella.