Court: Trump Admin. Must Explain Refusal to Protect Imperiled Corals

HONOLULU — On Thursday, a federal court today struck down the U.S. government’s refusal to grant critical protection to threatened coral species. The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii held that the government improperly denied these 20 coral species protections from climate change, the primary threat to their survival.

“I’m delighted by this court ruling because it underlines climate change’s overwhelming threat to imperiled corals,” said Emily Jeffers, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ve lost half of the worlds’ corals reefs in the past 40 years, and if we don’t act quickly the rest could disappear forever by the end of this century.”

The lawsuit stemmed from a 2020 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity that sought protection for threatened coral species found in Florida, the Caribbean, and the Indo-Pacific region. The petition sought regulations to address climate change, a ban on international trade, and protections from local threats such as development and poor water quality. The government denied the petition in 2021, leaving many of the threatened corals without necessary protection.

The ruling found the government had failed to provide a rational explanation for not protecting corals from climate change and sent the petition back to the agency for a new decision. The court upheld the government’s decision not to ban trade but struck down the government’s decision not to issue regulations to address local threats for Caribbean coral.

“Coral reefs are the backbone of a healthy ocean, so we just can’t risk losing them,” said Jeffers. “Anyone who’s ever snorkeled near a healthy reef knows that they’re a magical cacophony of color and life. But they also provide crucial habitat for fish and help protect our coasts from storms. We need the Trump administration to recognize the threats to corals and the coastal communities that rely on them.”