Four Bay Area environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday, alleging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior failed to deliver a legally required initial determination as to whether San Francisco Bay’s population of white sturgeon should be listed as a threatened species.
San Francisco Baykeeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, and Friends of the River joined forces to file legal action against the new administration regarding the Endangered Species Act.
The groups said the suit will be an early indicator of how this administration will act — or fail to act — to protect the Bay’s fish and wildlife.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to respond to petitions to list species under the ESA within one year, and that deadline is past,” said Eric Buescher, San Francisco Baykeeper’s managing attorney. “The Trump administration’s executive orders can’t change that reality or circumvent basic requirements of the law.”
The plaintiffs said the legal deadline is mandatory under federal statute because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that a petition filed by the coalition presented substantial information the listing may be warranted.
Decimated by diversions
The groups said the Bay and its watershed contain the only known reproductive population of white sturgeon in California. They said excessive diversions of fresh water from the Bay’s tributary rivers have decimated the Bay’s white sturgeon population.
White sturgeon require high river flows to reproduce successfully. Regular overfishing and lethal algae outbreaks have also contributed to the sturgeon’s dramatic decline.
The California Fish and Game Commission granted white sturgeon endangered species protections under the state’s endangered species act in 2024, pending a required one-year status review and final decision.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to respond to petitions to list species under the ESA within one year, and that deadline is past. The Trump administration’s executive orders can’t change that. …”
Eric Buescher, San Francisco Baykeeper
However, state agencies must still enact a science-based water management plan that guarantees the Bay will receive adequate freshwater flows. The plaintiffs also said Gov. Gavin Newsom must resist federal agencies’ attempts to override state authority over water use.
White sturgeon are North America’s largest freshwater fish. California’s record white sturgeon was approximately 10 feet long and weighed almost 500 pounds. The fish can live more than 100 years.
The plaintiffs said water diversions reduce river flows the sturgeon and other fish need to successfully reproduce. The state is planning new diversions — including Sites Reservoir and the Delta Tunnel — which the plaintiffs say represent an imminent threat to the sturgeon and other native fish, including Central Valley Chinook salmon that support the state’s coastal salmon fishery.
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