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An environmental group has sued the Trump administration over its failure to grant Endangered Species Act protections to sunflower sea stars, a keystone Pacific Ocean species that lost 90% of its population since 2013 to a wasting disease.
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The Center for Biological Diversity, in its filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of illegally delaying endangered and threatened listings for the giant sea stars.
NOAA’s Fisheries Service in 2023 proposed listing the species as threatened across its entire range, which stretches from Baja California to Alaska. That proposal stemmed from a the Center for Biological Diversity filed in 2021.
However, NOAA Fisheries has missed legally the legally mandated 12-month deadline for issuing a rule, thus violating the Endangered Species Act, the lawsuit said.
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“The agency’s failure to meet the deadline delays crucial protections for the sunflower sea star, increasing its risk of extinction,” the lawsuit said.
Sunflower sea stars are among the world’s biggest sea stars, growing up 3 feet across and with as many as 24 arms. The multicolored sea stars are important to marine habitats and fisheries because they eat sea urchins that, if left unchecked, can mow down kelp forests that fish need.
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