Trump administration sued over failure to protect cauliflower coral

A national environmental nonprofit on Thursday filed suit against the Trump administration for failing to protect cauliflower coral around the Hawaiian isles.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit in federal District Court in Hawaii, naming Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, and the National Marine Fisheries Service as defendants. The suit alleges that they failed to act on a petition to protect cauliflower coral under the Endangered Species Act.

Maxx Phillips, the center’s Hawaii director, said given that a strong, marine heat wave is now hitting Hawaii’s coral reefs, and scientists are anticipating one of the most severe, massive coral bleaching die-offs in history, this action is now more urgent than ever.

“Cauliflower coral is like the canary in the coal mine of our warming oceans,” said Phillips. “If we lose this species, it’s not only an indicator our ocean isn’t healthy, but our entire globe isn’t healthy.”

Coral reefs are currently in crisis, the suit said, with the world having lost a third of its reefs due to climate change and other factors over the past three decades. Without bold action to protect coral reefs, Phillips said, marine life around Hawaii will suffer, and that when colorful corals bleach white, then die, it is a sign the ocean is becoming less bountiful and biodiverse.

Cauliflower coral, or Pocillopora meandrina, is a bushy, shallow-water species found on most reefs of the Indo-Pacific and Eastern Pacific. The species has been particularly devastated by ocean warming triggered by human-caused climate change.

When stressed by changes in temperatures, light or nutrients, corals expel a symbiotic algae living in their tissues, which causes them to turn completely white. If the algae loss is prolonged, and stress continues, the coral eventually dies.

In May, the center had filed a notice of intent to sue the administration in federal court for failing to issue a 12-month finding in response to its petition to list cauliflower coral as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act.

The defendants had the opportunity then to “do the right thing,” said Phillips, which included doing their due diligence and determining whether cauliflower coral should be listed as threatened or endangered. Although the fisheries serv­ice last year had determined in an initial finding that the listing may be warranted, it failed to follow through on the petition within a one-year mark, as required by the act.

That one-year mark expired on March 14, and to date, the suit alleges, the agency still has not made a decision. If listing the species is determined as warranted, a proposed rule must be published in the Federal Register for public comment.

“To be honest, we just want them to do their job,” said Phillips. “We want them to follow the letter of the law and to do their job, which is to protect our endangered and threatened and vulnerable species such as the cauliflower coral.”

Cauliflower corals have been among Hawaii’s most abundant reef-building corals, and play an important role in protecting Hawaii shorelines as well as providing habitat for fish, the suit said. From 1999 to 2012, cauliflower coral coverage around Hawaii declined by 36%.

The coral, called ko‘a in Hawaiian, is also valued culturally, said Phillips, and is named in the Kumulipo, or Hawaiian creation chant.

The center contends that listing the cauliflower coral as endangered could help minimize threats, such as land-based pollution, sedimentation and physical disturbances by humans.

In 2006, the center successfully petitioned for the listing of elkhorn and staghorn corals, which became the first species ever protected under the Endangered Species Act due to the threat of global warming.

The act has had a successful track record of preventing species from going extinct, she said. But if nothing is done, then the species is at risk of going extinct.