Weakened US protections put marine wildlife at greater risk

These actions, coupled with recent changes that will severely damage the Endangered Species Act's (ESA) ability to protect imperiled wildlife, could dismantle many of the safeguards that the American public and decisionmakers have for decades deemed essential to the survival of imperiled species.

The NOAA Fisheries reforms, announced September 2, 2026 in a leadership message, feature an array of frontline and more obscure actions described as an "operational roadmap for regulatory, scientific, and administrative reform." Despite a nod to "maintain ocean ecosystem health," these actions-some of which are already underway-could have serious consequences for marine wildlife.

Concerningly, NOAA Fisheries is instructing regional fisheries to "consider removing species that no longer require conservation and management," without specifying how these determinations are to be made.

This type of language echoes the administration's final rule to rescind the longstanding regulatory definition of "harm" under the ESA, limiting how the act can protect threatened and endangered animals when habitat destruction or degradation kills or injures them. This change became effective September 14, 2026. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits focused on the final rule, as well as rule changes related to the designation of critical habitat.

In addition, federal regulators have proposed further changes to the ESA that would narrow protections against the direct killing of endangered animals. Under the US Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed reinterpretation of the law, actions that foreseeably harm or kill endangered species but were not specifically undertaken to do so will not be considered ESA violations.

In starker terms, a leaked memo from the Service states: "A vessel that inadvertently strikes a whale has not taken it, because the vessel's course was not set against the whale..." It is unclear how this new interpretation will affect NOAA Fisheries reforms as they relate to ESA-protected species.

A shift in how US fisheries are managed

The new NOAA Fisheries reforms support the administration's "America First Seafood Strategy" and Executive Order 14276, with an emphasis on reducing regulatory burdens, increasing domestic seafood production, and improving profitability. But fostering a strong fishing industry and healthy ocean ecosystems should not be competing goals. In fact, they are deeply connected through their impacts now and into the future.

Years of work between the fishing industry and conservation interests have built a level of trust and cooperation that could be jeopardized by NOAA Fisheries' planned actions. In addition, these reforms risk undermining protections under laws such as the ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act at a time when they already face numerous other threats.

Right whales need solutions, not delay

Entanglement in fishing gear remains one of the greatest threats to North Atlantic right whales. Ropes connecting traps and pots on the seafloor to buoys at the surface create vertical lines in the water column that whales can encounter as they migrate and feed. North Atlantic right whales will continue to needlessly face entanglement threats as the NOAA Fisheries reforms call on fishery councils to ignore requirements for on-demand fishing gear.