Largest North American freshwater fish needs protection from state and federal mismanagement
Press release
San Francisco Baykeeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, and Friends of the River today filed a lawsuit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of the US Department of the Interior for failing to deliver a legally required initial determination whether or not to list the San Francisco Bay’s population of White Sturgeon as a threatened species.
This marks one of the first legal actions against the new Trump Administration under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It will serve as an early indicator of how this administration will act—or fail to act—to protect the San Francisco Bay estuary’s fish and wildlife, and one of North America’s imperiled iconic species.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service is required to respond to petitions to list species under the ESA within one year, and that deadline is past. The Trump Administration’s executive orders can’t change that reality or circumvent basic requirements of the law,” said Eric Buescher, Baykeeper managing attorney.
The legal deadline is mandatory under federal statute because the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a finding that a petition filed by the coalition presented substantial information that listing the species may be warranted.
San Francisco Bay and its watershed are home to the only known reproductive population of White Sturgeon in California. Excessive diversions of fresh water from the Bay’s tributary rivers have decimated the Bay’s White Sturgeon population. White Sturgeon requires high river flows in order to reproduce successfully. Regular overfishing and lethal algae outbreaks in the Bay have also contributed to the sturgeon’s dramatic decline.
The California Fish and Game Commission granted White Sturgeon endangered species protections under the state’s endangered species act in 2024, pending a required one-year status review and final decision. However, state agencies under Governor Newsom must still enact a science-based water management plan that guarantees the Bay will receive adequate freshwater flows. Also, the Governor must resist federal agencies’ attempts to override state authority over water use.
White Sturgeon are North America’s largest freshwater fish. California’s record White Sturgeon was approximately 10 feet long and weighed almost 500 pounds. The White Sturgeon can live more than 100 years. Current water diversions reduce the river flows White Sturgeon and other fish need to successfully reproduce. At the same time, the state plans to build new diversions—including Sites Reservoir and the Delta Tunnel—which represent an imminent threat to the White Sturgeon, as well as other native fish, including Central Valley Chinook Salmon that support the state’s coastal salmon fishery.
Coalition spokespeople issued the following statements:
Jon Rosenfield, PhD – Baykeeper science director and lead author of the petition to list White Sturgeon as threatened: “The biggest threat to the White Sturgeon’s survival has been the neglect—even downright hostility—from the government agencies that are supposed to protect our Bay and its fishes. Recently, Governor Newsom followed President Trump’s lead, ordering state agencies to ignore environmental rules that protect San Francisco Bay’s clean water, native fish, and communities from the negative effects of unsustainable water diversions. This highlights the need to protect the Bay’s White Sturgeon under both the federal and state endangered species acts. White Sturgeon have been around for over 40 million years, but they may not survive Newsom’s race with Trump to eviscerate safeguards for the Bay’s water.”
Gary Bobker – Friends of the River program director: “From a tiny fish (Delta Smelt) that lives one year to a giant (White Sturgeon) that lives for up to a century, the native fish populations of the San Francisco Bay estuary are crashing. Sturgeon shouldn’t have to wait even one more year for the federal protections they need to survive and flourish so that they will be around in a hundred years, providing material and spiritual nourishment for future generations.”
Ivan Senock – Restore the Delta deputy director: “In my experience working with Tribal communities in the Delta and Northern California, the White Sturgeon is a culturally significant species like all native species that have connections to Indigenous peoples of California. Loss of significant populations threatens the cultural, spiritual, and historical integrity of Tribal lives in the estuary.
