Restore Endangered Species Act Protections Before More Whales Die

Reverse the Trump administration's reinterpretation of the Endangered Species Act — both the redefinition of "harm" that allows habitat destruction and the new guidance that lets cruise ships kill endangered whales without consequence. Two fin whales have already been struck and killed by cruise ships in Alaska this year alone. Under the new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interpretation, those deaths aren't even considered an illegal "taking" because they weren't intentional. That's not a loophole — that's gutting the law. The Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of 99% of listed species and helped fully recover 39 others. More than 20 threatened or endangered species live in Alaska, and the protections that kept them alive for 50 years are being dismantled by memo and regulatory reinterpretation. As EarthJustice attorney Ben Levitan put it, species go extinct not because people intend to kill them — they go extinct because of exactly the kind of incidental harm this administration just made legal. That legacy belongs to the next generation too. Fight to protect it.