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Flaring on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. (Nicolas Russell / Getty Images)
Press Release July 24, 2024

Environmental and Gulf Groups Challenge Interior Department’s Outdated Air Quality Regulations for Offshore Drilling

Offshore emissions major source of Gulf pollution

document July 24, 2024

BOEM Air Quality Regulations Challenge

Environmental and Gulf groups challenge Interior Department’s outdated air quality regulations for offshore drilling

In the News: The Invading Sea June 25, 2024

The summer of love for Gulf whales

In the News: The New York Times May 3, 2024

Oil Companies Expand Offshore Drilling, Pointing to Energy Needs

Brettny Hardy, Attorney, Oceans Program: “No matter how you look at it, there’s a really dire need to accelerate this shift to clean energy. The things the industry is doing now is not going to help that transition.”

"Energy bars of the sea," Pacific sardines are small schooling fish that are essential food for humpback whales, dolphins, sea lions, brown pelicans, Chinook salmon, and other important commercially and recreationally caught fish and marine animals. (Klaus Stiefel / CC BY-NC 2.0)
Press Release: Victory April 26, 2024

Government Rebuilding Plan for Sardines on U.S. West Coast is Unlawful, Court Rules

Earthjustice, representing Oceana, prevails in lawsuit to recover Pacific sardines to protect whales, sea lions, seabirds, and other ocean animals that rely on the small fish for food

document April 22, 2024

Pacific Sardine Management Ruling

Ruling says government must establish new fisheries management measures to protect Pacific sardines and species that depend on them

An offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Brian McDonald / Shutterstock)
Press Release April 15, 2024

Earthjustice Responds to Rulemaking Expanding Companies’ Financial Requirements for Offshore Oil-and-Gas Projects

Fossil fuel industry will be made more responsible for costs of decommissioning offshore drilling projects

In the News: Public News Service March 27, 2024

Partial shutdown of crab fishing season considered to protect whales

Andrea Treece, Attorney, Oceans Program: “We leave too much gear on the water too late in the season; we wait until the risk is elevated. Too often, it’s too late to protect those whales. And so we need to really learn our lesson from the past.”

Loggerhead sea turtles are among the marine creatures vulnerable to seismic testing for gas and oil.
(Vladimir Wrangel / Getty Images)
Update March 19, 2024

13,000 Sea Turtle Deaths a Year Is Too Many

Earthjustice is in court challenging a Trump-era allowance that says drillers can kill thousands of turtles a year and harm many more.

A Rice’s whale, one of Earth’s rarest whales. (Lisa Conger / Beth Josephson / Permit #21938 / NOAA Fisheries)
Update March 19, 2024

Less Than 100 Left: Help Save the Rice’s Whale From Extinction

Earthjustice fights to protect endangered species like the Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale and the habitats they need to survive.

Lau'ipala (yellow tang fish) swim in a coral reef off the island of Lānaʻi, Hawaii. Reefs are essential to biodiversity, with 25% of all marine species found in, on, or near
them. Healthy reefs also facilitate subsistence and commercial fishing, and they protect people from storm surges and floods, absorbing up to 97% of a shorebound wave’s energy. Around a billion people benefit from reefs. (M Swiet Productions / Getty Images)
feature March 14, 2024

Ocean Biodiversity

Ocean ecosystems are essential to our world, and thankfully, we can still chart a new path forward to protect them.

The Development Driller III in the Gulf Of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
Press Release March 13, 2024

Gulf, Alaska, and Environmental Groups File Motion to Intervene in Oil Industry Lawsuit Against Interior Department’s Five-Year Offshore Leasing Plan

Groups aim to defend against industry efforts to maximize offshore drilling in public waters

document March 13, 2024

Motion to Intervene in Oil Industry Lawsuit Against Interior Department’s Five-Year Offshore Leasing Plan

Gulf, Alaska, and environmental groups filed a motion to intervene in an oil industry lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s Five-Year Program for offshore oil-and-gas leasing — to prevent industry from grabbing even more public waters for profit.

Oil drilling infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. (Brad Zweerink for Earthjustice)
Press Release February 12, 2024

Environmental and Gulf Groups React to API Lawsuit Against Interior Dept. Targeting Five-Year Offshore Leasing Program; Seek Stronger Protections for Gulf of Mexico

As the oil industry pursues a max-out strategy for fossil fuel development in the Gulf with a new legal challenge, advocates flag serious climate, public health, and environmental concerns

document February 12, 2024

Legal Challenge: Five-Year Offshore Leasing Program

Environmental groups and Gulf-based organizations filed a legal challenge to hold the Interior Department accountable for failing to adequately consider the public health impacts on frontline communities in its final Five-Year Program.

For more than 100 million years, sea turtles have charted the seven seas. (Irina Kozhemyakina / iStockphoto)
From the Experts February 8, 2024

Animal Magnetism: Sea turtles may follow Earth’s pull to navigate home

We’re fighting to protect the Gulf’s imperiled species as oil and gas corporations run freighters through precious habitat, drill deeper, and blast along the Gulf floor.

Rice's whale — a new species of whale recognized in 2021, previously known as a subpopulation of Bryde's whale, endemic to the Gulf of Mexico.
(NOAA Fisheries)
From the Experts January 4, 2024

Gulf Whale: Species in the Spotlight

The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has added the critically endangered Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale to a de facto extinction watchlist. But we still need to do more to protect the species.

staff November 20, 2023

Sabrina Devereaux

Based in Seattle, Sabrina is an associate attorney with the Oceans Program.