Description: Lawsuit to compel final listing determination under the Endangered Species Act for the Gulf of Mexico whale.
-
Natural Resources Defense Council v. Ross
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/30/2019 Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Download Notice of dismissal filed after the defendants listed the Gulf of Mexico whale as endangered. 02/21/2019 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Environmental Groups Filed Lawsuit to Compel Final Listing Determination on Gulf of Mexico Whale. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Healthy Gulf filed an Endangered Species Act citizen suit seeking an order to compel the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to make a final decision on whether to list the Gulf of Mexico whale as endangered. The plaintiffs alleged that NMFS’s 12-month finding and proposal to list the species as endangered—which were published in December 2016 in response to NRDC’s listing petition—identified 27 threats to the whale’s survival. The plaintiffs asserted that NMFS was required to take further action within a year of the publication of the proposed listing decision. The plaintiffs alleged that the whale faced numerous anthropogenic threats and that its small population size and limited range “increase[d] its vulnerability to extinction from … environmental processes like climate change.”