An environmental group is taking the Trump administration to court to secure protections for a species of crab highly valued by the biomedical industry.
The lawsuit follows a 2024 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and 25 other organizations that asked NOAA Fisheries to safeguard American horseshoe crabs — a species as old as the dinosaurs — from habitat loss and overharvesting.
In February, the Trump administration denied those protections.
“Horseshoe crabs have survived meteor impacts and ice ages but they’re facing their biggest threat yet: us,” said Danny Waltz, a senior attorney at the CBD, in a statement accompanying the lawsuit the group filed Thursday in federal court in Washington. “It’s deeply upsetting that the Trump administration is unwilling to save these living fossils from extinction. I’m hopeful this lawsuit will force federal officials to act before it’s too late.”
