Wild Fish Conservancy v. U.S. Department of Commerce

Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit in federal district court in the District of Columbia to compel the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to make a determination under the Endangered Species Act as to whether listing of the Alaska Chinook salmon as endangered or threatened is warranted. The Conservancy submitted a petition to list the Alaska Chinook salmon on January 11, 2024, and NMFS issued a 90-day finding in May 2024 that listing may be warranted. The Conservancy alleged that NMFS failed to make the required finding regarding whether listing is warranted by the January 11, 2025 deadline. The complaint alleged that factors contributing to the depletion of Chinook salmon populations included “changes to the marine environment associated with climate change,” as well as fishery management decisions and “large-scale releases of hatchery pink and chum salmon in Alaska, Japan, and Russia.”