Turtle Island Restoration Network is one of three groups that sued the Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service last week for failing to designate critical habitat for threatened and endangered humpback whales along the Pacific Coast. Four of the 14 populations of humpbacks worldwide remain endangered and one is threatened, though the fisheries service has yet to designate critical habitat for them. According to the suit, that’s a violation of the Endangered Species Act, which requires the service to propose or finalize a rule that designates critical habitat within a year’s time from the listing. Turtle Island partnered with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, a Southern California group arguing that humpbacks have played an important role in the lives of Chumash maritime peoples. The lawsuit seeks an order from the court declaring the service in violation of the act and establishing deadlines for the issuance of proposed and final rules establishing critical habitat for the three endangered populations in United States waters. “We will continue to compel the Trump administration to abide by environmental laws and protect humpback whales from California’s industrial fisheries, ship traffic and oil spills,” Todd Steiner, executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, said in a release. Fifty-four humpbacks were found tangled in fishing gear off the West Coast in 2016 and an estimated 22 humpbacks die each year after being hit by ships off California, Oregon and Washington, the press release states. The populations that remain endangered in U.S. waters include a threatened Mexico population that feeds off the West Coast and Alaska and an endangered Central America population that feeds almost exclusively off California and Oregon. To establish critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act, the Fisheries Service considers space for individual and population growth, cover and shelter, nutritional and physiological requirements, sites for breeding and rearing and areas that are representative of the historical, geographical and ecological distributions of a species. Mr. Steiner said Turtle Island’s whale protection work until now has focused on the California gillnet fishery, which he said kills more marine mammals than all West Coast fisheries combined. He also serves on the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s advisory council, which has worked to alter shipping lanes away from marine mammal habitat and implement slow-downs. Though Turtle Island is involved in numerous lawsuits (Mr. Steiner did not provide the exact number) and has several more in the wings, their litigation is pro bono. Mr. Steiner said he was proud of the group’s legal work in particular. “We will file as many lawsuits as necessary to make sure that the Trump administration protects marine ecosystems,” he said.