Protect Leatherback Sea Turtles From Death And Extinction

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Leatherback sea turtles have existed for more than 100 million years. The Pacific population is now critically endangered, with nesting beach surveys documenting steep, sustained declines across the Pacific.⁷ In U.S. waters, one of the few concrete legal protections keeping this species from further collapse is now on the chopping block — not from outside the government, but from within it.

What These Protections Actually Do

In 2020, NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule establishing firm interaction limits for the Hawaii shallow-set longline fishery — the commercial fleet that sets hooks across vast stretches of the Pacific to target swordfish and tuna.⁵ The rule created a fleet-wide hard cap on leatherback sea turtle interactions: once the fishery reaches that number, it closes for the remainder of the season. A "strike-two" provision goes further, removing any vessel from operation after two leatherback encounters in a single season.

These were not discretionary policy choices. They were legal requirements under the Endangered Species Act, grounded in biological review that found the fishery's impact on leatherbacks could not continue without constraint. NOAA's own bycatch records confirm this fishery has historically been a significant source of leatherback injuries and deaths.⁶ The 2020 rule was a direct response to that record.

The Federal Directive to Eliminate Those Limits

In July 2026, NOAA's Assistant Administrator for Fisheries sent a formal letter to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council directing the body to prioritize removal of the hard cap and strike-two trip limit.¹ The letter framed these protections as barriers to commercial productivity and fishing access, citing Executive Order 14276. The directive is part of a broader federal effort to roll back marine protections in favor of expanded fishing industry operations.²

The Council took up the issue at its August meeting alongside other commercial fishing restrictions.³ By September, it had formally advanced rulemaking to modify the leatherback interaction limits.⁴

What Removing the Cap Actually Means

Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles on Earth. As the primary consumers of jellyfish in open ocean systems, they play a role no other species can fill. Removing the interaction cap does not eliminate harm to these animals — it eliminates the legal ceiling on how much harm is permitted each season.

There Is Still Time to Act

No final rule has been adopted. The rulemaking process is still moving, which means NOAA Fisheries retains the authority to withdraw its directive to the Council and preserve the existing ESA-compliant protections while any review proceeds. Public pressure matters at this stage.

Sign the petition to direct NOAA Fisheries to withdraw the July 2026 directive, halt any rulemaking aimed at removing these protections, and keep the leatherback hard cap and strike-two trip limit in place while the future of this critically endangered species is still being decided.