Environmental groups accuse federal government of failing to protect whales in California

Two environment groups on Wednesday announced their intent to sue the federal government for failing to protect whales off California’s coast from fatal ship strikes.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth sent a notice to the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard, accusing the latter and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) of neglecting to address how shipping lane designations contribute to collisions with whales and sea turtles.

At least eight gray whales have been killed by suspected ship trikes in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025 alone, the groups warned.

“It’s been a terrible year for whales off the West Coast, and we can’t afford to let federal officials waste any more time delaying action on ship strikes,” David Derrick, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an accompanying statement.

Ship strikes are a primary cause of death for gray, blue, fin and humpback whales that frequent California’s coasts, according to the groups. The  number of ship strikes, they noted, could be much higher than observed incidents — since whales sink — with one study estimating that about 80 perish in this manner each year.

In December 2022, a federal judge ruled in favor of the two organizations in a prior lawsuit challenging the same government agencies. That case focused on the alleged failure of the government entities to protect endangered whales from being struck by vessels in the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Francisco Bay areas.

Regarding the designated shipping lanes — the focus of the potential forthcoming lawsuit — the groups explained that these routes cross through several areas where whales congregate, including the Santa Barbara Channel and the northern approach to the San Francisco Bay.

Although the Fisheries Service concluded in a 2017 biological opinion that the lanes would cause no “take” of whales or turtles, the 2022 court ruling rejected those conclusions, the groups stated. Specifically, the ruling determined that the conclusion “defies logic” and that the deaths of whales by strikes within the lanes remains “undisputed.”

While the court in its ruling invalidated the biological opinion, the environmental groups said that the agencies have neither taken steps to complete a new one nor have they evaluated other measures for reducing ship strikes.

“A decent plan for routing and slowing ships down is long overdue, and this federal foot-dragging has been deadly for whales,” Derrick said. 

“The law is clear that the agencies must go back to the drawing board and come back with something that will actually protect whales and sea turtles,” he added.

In response to a query from The Hill, Steve Roth, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, said that the agency “does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.” Rachel Hager, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, similarly stated that her office is “unable to comment on matters of litigation.”