Donald Trump and his administration removed much of the teeth of the Endangered Species Act, restructuring the guidelines that protect many species in danger of becoming extinct, including several species of sharks.
The new rules rules would make it easier to remove protections established under the ESA for certain species, raise the bar when it comes to establishing protection for future species and using monetary assessments as a criterion for determining whether a species is worthy of protections.
This could have dire consequences for many marine predators such as sharks. The ESA currently grants federal protections for species such as scalloped hammerheads and oceanic whitetips. Under the new guidelines, marine habitats that serve as wildlife refuges for protected species could be opened for coastal development or offshore drilling if the economic incentive to do so is greater than the potential cost of protecting that habitat for endangered species. Under the current law, determinations must be made solely based on science, “without reference to possible economic or other impacts of determination.”
“These changes crash a bulldozer through the Endangered Species Act’s lifesaving protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tuscon, Arizona.
Trump, who is alleged to have a crippling fear of sharks, also placed limitations on the ability of regulators to take climate change into consideration when making listing assessments.
The ESA was originally signed into law in 1973 and is credited with rescuing the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, the American alligator and other species from extinction. United Nations scientists recently released a report finding that as many as a million species are at risk of extinction.
“These rollbacks of the ESA are for one purpose only: more handouts to special interests that don’t want to play by the rules and only want to line their pockets. This action by the Trump administration adds to their ongoing efforts to clear the way for oil and gas development without any regard for the destruction of wildlife and their habitats,” said Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva, the Democratic chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. “I have serious questions on whether inappropriate political influence was exerted over decisions that should be based on the best scientific information.”
The new guidelines will go into effect 30 days after being entered into the Federal Register.
“This effort to gut protections for endangered and threatened species has the same two features of most Trump administration actions: it’s a gift to industry, and it’s illegal,” said Drew Caputo, Earthjustice Vice President of Litigation for Lands, Wildlife, and Oceans. “We’ll see the Trump administration in court.”