Trump administration sued for endangering whales and turtles in Gulf of Mexico

Miami, (EFE) – Four environmental organizations sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday to claim that the Trump administration’s fin whales and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, endemic to the Gulf of Mexico, are endangered by the administration’s authorization of oil and gas extraction.

The Earthjustice group filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and the Turtle Island Restoration Network against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service for issuing an “inadequate” ruling that “allows staggering harm to Gulf species.”

“The Trump administration’s latest biological opinion is yet another gift to Big Oil to destroy the Gulf of Mexico and eradicate the critically endangered Trump’s fin whale,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director of Friends of the Earth, in a statement.

Although the U.S. Department of the Interior can lease areas of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies or authorize drilling, the Fisheries Service must first assess the risk to threatened and endangered species.

But the groups claim the Fisheries Service was forced to complete a new biological assessment because a federal court ruled the previous one unlawful.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to the Rice whale, a species with fewer than 100 remaining individuals, and is also home to five of the world’s seven sea turtle species: loggerheads, leatherbacks, hawksbills, Kemp’s ridleys, and green turtles, according to Earthjustice.

“The Trump administration is working hard to give polluting companies a free pass on our lands and waters, while the Gulf’s imperiled wildlife and ecosystems are paying the price,” said Devorah Ancel, senior staff attorney at the Sierra Club.

According to the Fisheries Service’s ruling, which the plaintiffs obtained, vessel strikes alone will kill nine fin whales and injure three more over the next 45 years.

Furthermore, they argue that the Fisheries Service recognizes that these activities will kill or harm hundreds of sea turtles each year through vessel collisions, explosions, marine debris, and oil spills.

The organizations recalled the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, when more than 100,000 animals protected under the Endangered Species Act were killed or harmed.

“The Gulf’s endangered whales and sea turtles will not survive the Trump administration’s assault on our environmental laws if we do not stop it,” warned Joanie Steinhaus, Oceans Director for the Turtle Island Restoration Network.