Gray whales along the U.S. West Coast are disappearing at an alarming rate. Their population has fallen by roughly half in the last ten years, dropping from as many as 30,000 whales in 2016 to as few as 11,700 today. This past summer alone, 187 dead gray whales turned up on beaches across the region. Scientists believe a warming Arctic is destroying the tiny crustaceans these whales depend on for food, leaving them too weak to survive their migration or to reproduce.

Gray whales used to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, but they were removed from that list in 1994 after their numbers recovered. Conservationists petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to put gray whales back on the list — and NOAA missed its own legal deadline to respond. Three conservation groups have now filed formal notice that they intend to sue the federal government if it keeps ignoring the science.

"As goes Arctic sea ice, so goes the gray whale population," said Richard Steiner, the marine conservation biologist who filed the original relisting petition.

The law is supposed to require federal agencies to act on the best available science, not sit on a deadline while a species keeps dying. NOAA and the Trump administration owe the public a real answer. Relisting gray whales as endangered would trigger a required federal recovery plan and unlock funding for the research and habitat protections these whales need right now, while there is still time to help them.

Sign the petition to demand NOAA respond to the gray whale relisting petition — every month of delay is another month more whales starve.