Earthjustice has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming the agency has failed to protect whitetip sharks.

The suit was filed April 2 in U.S. district court in Hawaii on behalf of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i and Michael Nakachi, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner, with the intention of forcing the administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service to take long-delayed action to protect oceanic whitetip sharks.

NOAA is named as a defendant, along with NMFS and Wilbur Ross in his official capacity as secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Oceanic whitetip sharks, or Carcharhinus longimanus, were historically one of the most abundant sharks in the world, according to the suit, but the population has declined significantly due to fishing pressure. Scientists estimate that in the Pacific Ocean alone, oceanic whitetip populations have declined 80% to 95% since the mid-1990s.

Although the sharks are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, conservationists say an estimated 20,000 have been captured as bycatch by long-liners operating in the Pacific over the past decade.

The lawsuit alleges that despite years of data showing thousands of sharks are still killed as bycatch each year, NMFS failed to declare them as overfished, which would trigger protective action by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

“No protections exist to prevent fisheries from capturing oceanic whitetip sharks as bycatch,” said Moana Bjur, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, in the release. “That needs to change if we are to prevent this incredible apex predator from going extinct. That’s why we’re going to court.”

By listing the shark as threatened in 2018, the suit said, NMFS recognized the overfished status of the species, and that ongoing threats put it on “a trajectory towards a high risk of extinction in the foreseeable future.”

Furthermore, swift action is required under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which Congress enacted to prevent overfishing and to rebuild overfished stocks, the suit said.

Nakachi, who owns a local ocean recreation company, said the shark has been a sacred protector for his family for generations.

“It’s time for the government to stop preventable shark deaths,” said Nakachi in the release. “As a kahu mano (guardian to the shark) I feel a personal responsibility to speak up on this issue, but I believe we all share a duty to ensure the survival of this sacred animal.”

The suit asks NMFS to take necessary steps to “trigger necessary protections as expeditiously as possible” no later than 30 days after the court’s order.