Lawsuit Aims to Put Sunflower Sea Stars Along the West Coast on Endangered Species List

Lawsuit aims to put sunflower sea stars along the West Coast on endangered species list

A federal agency proposed listing sunflower sea stars as threatened in 2023 but hasn't yet issued a rule, something the lawsuit alleges should have been done by law within 12 months.

Lawsuit aims to put sunflower sea stars on endangered species list - The Daily Chronicle

An environmental group has sued the Trump administration over its failure to grant Endangered Species Act protections to sunflower sea stars, a keystone Pacific Ocean species that lost 90% of its population since 2013 to a wasting disease. The Center for Biological Diversity, in its lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of illegally delayin…

Lawsuit aims to put sunflower sea stars on endangered species list

A healthy sunflower sea star is seen on the seafloor in 2014. Sunflower sea stars are important for fish habitat because they eat sea urchins, which can mow down kelp forests if left unchecked. A wasting disease that struck more than a decade ago wiped out about 90% of the population, with the most severe losses in the southern part of the species' range, off Mexico and California. Sunflower sea stars in Alaska have also died from the wasting di…