Lawsuit Aims to Protect Whales in California From Deadly Ship Strikes

At least 10 gray whales have been killed by probable ship strikes in the Bay Area so far in 2025, and several more whales have died from undetermined causes. Today’s lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Coast Guard was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit also targets air pollution from vessels.

“Commercial shipping is proving deadly to whales and sea turtles, but it doesn’t have to be that way if federal officials get their act together,” said David Derrick, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Rerouting and slowing ships in hotspots can prevent strikes, curb noise and air pollution and save endangered marine life. The Trump administration is legally required to look at how to minimize harm to whales and sea turtles, and officials need to take this problem seriously and make a plan.”

About 80 whales are killed by ship strikes off the West Coast each year, according to one study. Ship strikes are a leading cause of death for gray, blue, fin and humpback whales off California’s coast. Because most dead whales sink and are not observed, scientists say the actual number of ship strikes could be 20 times higher.

“Whales are dying preventable deaths,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth. “It shouldn’t take another lawsuit to force federal officials to fulfill mandated duties to assess and manage risks to whales from shipping traffic, yet here we are.”

In December 2022 a federal court ruled in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth in their lawsuit challenging the failure of the Fisheries Service and the Coast Guard. The suit asserted that the agencies did not protect endangered whales from being struck by ships using ports in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Francisco Bay regions.

The existing designated shipping lanes route shipping traffic through several “hot spots” where whales congregate, including the Santa Barbara Channel and the northern approach to the San Francisco Bay. But the Fisheries Service concluded in a 2017 analysis, called a biological opinion, that the designations would cause no “take” of any whales or sea turtles. The 2022 court ruling rejected those conclusions, finding that the Service’s determination “defies logic” and that it is “undisputed” that whales are struck and killed by ship strikes within the lanes.

The court ruling invalidated the 2017 analysis, but the agencies have not taken steps since then to complete a new biological opinion. They also have not considered measures proven to reduce ship strikes, such as mandatory speed limits, which also lead to less air pollution.


Photo: A dead juvenile blue whale washed ashore on a Point Reyes National Seashore beach after being struck by a ship in June 2018. Photo by NPS / Sarah Codde


The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Friends of the Earth fights to create a more healthy and just world. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, ensuring the food we eat and products we use are safe and sustainable, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-aims-to-protect-whales-in-california-from-deadly-ship-strikes-2025-10-23/