OAKLAND, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today for not fully disclosing the harms to endangered and threatened animals caused by exempting two fishing vessels from the prohibition against longline fishing off California.

“The government knows longline fishing harms marine critters, but it approved these permits without taking a hard look at what was really happening in the water,” said Catherine Kilduff, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “California’s endangered marine animals face even more threats because of the Trump administration’s unlawful permits. It would be tragic to injure or kill majestic ocean animals like leatherback sea turtles and humpback whales because officials are taking shortcuts to help revive a long-dormant fishery.”

Longline fishing uses hooks attached to a fishing line up to 60 miles long weighted to the sea floor and set out for hours or even days. The lines and hooks can catch sea turtles, whales and seals looking for food or just swimming through the lines.

Today’s lawsuit, filed U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, seeks to invalidate the longline permits issued by NOAA.

“The federal government banned longlining in California in 2004 to protect leatherback sea turtles — and they’re still teetering on the brink of extinction,” said Todd Steiner, ecologist and founder of Turtle Island Restoration Network. “There’s no scientific or moral justification for reopening this destructive fishery especially to catch swordfish laden with toxic mercury,”

The Pacific leatherback sea turtles that migrate and feed in waters off California are highly endangered. They have declined 83% in the past three generations, to 1,443 adults. Scientists predict a 71% population decline in the next 20 years, to just 418 adult leatherback sea turtles.

Other animals with histories of entanglements and hookings in longlines include humpback whales, Guadalupe fur seals and loggerhead sea turtles.

A Pacific marine heat wave and El Niño conditions are pushing loggerhead sea turtles and Guadalupe fur seals farther north than usual, which could result in more animals being caught with the longline fishing these permits allow. The El Niño event is predicted to last through early spring.

Today’s lawsuit says the permits violate the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

In 2019, a court invalidated similar fishing permits because the government failed to properly examine the harm to leatherback sea turtles.