This story was originally published in Oaklandside ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://oaklandside.org/2025/02/13/local-groups-sue-trump-white-sturgeon-endangered-species-act/), an independent, nonprofit news site.
The white sturgeon of the San Francisco Estuary resembles something out of a Jurassic Park film. The prehistoric fish, the largest freshwater fish in California, looks like a steel-colored mix between a dinosaur and a catfish. Historical records show that they can grow up to 20 feet long and live over 100 years, bearing their age handsomely with a set of prominent whiskers. They’ve been around in some form going back more than 100 million years. However, these remnants of an ancient world are now facing some of the greatest threats they’ve seen in their long lives: politicians.
“It’s a species that is at real risk, that is a truly remarkable creature and lives for decades,” said Eric Buescher, managing attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit watchdog. “It’s been around essentially since the time of the dinosaurs and here we are, in the last 30 or so years, pushing it toward the brink of extinction.”
Harmful algal blooms, poaching, and other perils have already dwindled the sturgeon’s populations, and in recent weeks a pair of politically driven orders to divert more water from the fish’s habitat have made environmental groups especially anxious. Meanwhile, efforts to get the species ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/fish-and-game-commission-approves-white-sturgeon-as-a-candidate-species-for-listing-as-threatened) listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act have stagnated.
Now, four local water and fishing conservation groups — San Francisco Baykeeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, and Friends of the River — have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://baykeeper.org/press_release/coalition-sues-trump-administration-to-list-white-sturgeon-under-endangered-species-act/#:~:text=The%20California%20Fish%20and%20Game,status%20review%20and%20final%20decision.) and the Secretary of the Department of the Interior for failing to give an initial listing determination to the fish in time.
Once a petition is filed for a species to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife has 90 days to rule on whether the species is eligible, after which the agency has a year to deliver a verdict. However the service has a pattern of missing the deadline for a final determination — by a lot. Data shows that species wait an average of 12 years for a decision ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://www.hcn.org/issues/55-12/endangered-species-the-endangered-species-act-by-the-numbers/#:~:text=In%20the%20half%2Dcentury%20since,lawmakers%20and%20attacked%20by%20industry.). The lawsuit for the white sturgeon’s listing comes around two months after the USFW missed its determination deadline.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that it comes at a critical point not just for the sturgeon but in California’s conversation around water management. On Jan. 31, 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/31/governor-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-help-california-capture-and-store-more-water-from-upcoming-severe-storms/#:~:text=What%20you%20need%20to%20know,state%20following%20multi%2Dyear%20droughts.) to ease efforts to divert and store additional water from upcoming storms. It goes on to direct California’s Department of Water Resources to divert as much water as possible from excess flows into the Northern California water storage.
Newsom’s order received swift criticism ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-02-01/newsom-storms-water-order) from environmentalists. In the governor’s directive to “maximize diversions,” they heard echoes of President Trump’s order ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/emergency-measures-to-provide-water-resources-in-california-and-improve-disaster-response-in-certain-areas/) commanding federal agencies to “override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries.” Jon Rosenfield, science director for San Francisco Baykeeper, told the Los Angeles Times that Newsom’s order was a “capitulation” to Trump, who had been vocal in his criticism of California’s water management following the Los Angeles firestorms. Earlier this month the president ordered the release of billions of gallons of water in the Central Valley, claiming falsely ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5287016/farmers-are-worried-after-trump-released-billions-of-gallons-of-water-in-california) that it would have prevented the fires if it had happened sooner.
Increased water diversions have impacted the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Estuary’s ecosystems, alarming water and fishing conservationists. Disruption in flows can impact habitats, migration, and reproduction for California’s native fish. White sturgeon in their early life stages can get trapped in diverted streams and die. White sturgeon populations had already been struggling to recover after harmful algal blooms in 2022 and 2023 wiped out large numbers of the fish. The 2022 bloom left over 850 sturgeons dead on the shore, but Buescher called it “literally the tip of the iceberg of the ones that nobody ever saw that suffered the same consequence.”
Environmental groups have been fighting California’s more than 60-year-old plan to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The proposed delta tunnel would pump more water to Southern California. Newsom has backed the estimated $20 billion project ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/05/delta-tunnel-new-price-tag/), saying it’s vital for a secure, climate-resilient future. Environmental advocates say it would have detrimental effects on ecosystems, fish populations, and surrounding communities.
“The biggest threat to the White Sturgeon’s survival has been the neglect — even downright hostility — from the government agencies that are supposed to protect our bay and its fishes,” wrote San Francisco Baykeeper’s Rosenfield in a statement. “Recently, Governor Newsom followed President Trump’s lead, ordering state agencies to ignore environmental rules that protect San Francisco Bay’s clean water, native fish, and communities from the negative effects of unsustainable water diversions. This highlights the need to protect the Bay’s White Sturgeon under both the federal and state endangered species acts.”
The white sturgeon is not completely out of luck. The groups were able to submit the species for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, and last June the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found the petition strong enough for the white sturgeon to become a candidate species for listing. Candidate species in California are afforded some state-level protections while they wait for an official verdict.
Buescher said the lawsuit the groups have filed is fairly straightforward: A clear deadline was missed. He emphasized the importance of the government sticking to these deadlines for the sake of the species that often don’t have time to wait.
White sturgeon “are integral, a huge part of the bay’s ecosystem. Native people’s reliance on that ecosystem, the fishing communities, commercial and recreational, that exist throughout the bay and coastal California — all of that is at risk,” said Buescher. “And in the face of those risks, we have a government that can’t manage to make decisions that are due in one year in less than five. That’s an unacceptable course of conduct.”
This story was originally published in Oaklandside ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://oaklandside.org/2025/02/13/local-groups-sue-trump-white-sturgeon-endangered-species-act/), an independent, nonprofit news site.
#Local #Groups #Sue #Trump #Administration #Protect #White #Sturgeon
