No. 1,337, February 19, 2026

Defend Alaska From Seabed Mining

The Trump administration is aggressively pushing to open more than 100 million ocean acres off the coast of Alaska to seabed mining. Its proposal targets wonderfully biodiverse places: the deep waters of the Aleutian Islands, the volcanic seamounts of the Gulf of Alaska, the coastal areas of the Bering Sea, and vast areas of the high Arctic Ocean.

Seafloor mining is highly destructive. It scrapes the ocean floor for metals and minerals, creating huge sediment plumes. Around Alaska it would smother rich marine ecosystems and rare cold-water coral reefs — and could hurt endangered species like bearded seals, Steller sea lions, and bowhead whales.

Life on the deep seabed is a mysterious realm scientists have only begun to understand. They worry that mining there will do untold damage to the ocean's food web and other complex natural systems.

Take action to stop the Trump administration’s irresponsible rush to plunder the ocean floor for short-term gain.

Suing to Secure a Gray Wolf Recovery Plan

A new Daily Montanan article covers the Center’s lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan — because, the agency announced late last year, protecting gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act is “no longer appropriate.”

That decision reflects an illegal policy reversal by the Trump administration. Thanks to a previous Center suit, under the Biden administration the Service promised that a national recovery plan would be central to its approach to wolf conservation. Right now wolves’ outdated recovery plan — from 1992 — focuses on Minnesota, omitting other places where wolves could recover (like the West Coast and southern Rockies).

“I’m frustrated we have to go to court yet again to force the administration to do its job,” said the Center’s Carnivore Conservation Director Collette Adkins.

Help us fight for wolves with a gift to our Future for the Wild Fund.

California Protects Mountain Lions

Following advocacy by the Center and allies — and thousands of supporters who signed our petition — California’s Fish and Game Commission granted permanent protection last week to Southern California and Central Coast mountain lions under the state’s Endangered Species Act — recognizing that the great cats are imperiled from the Bay Area down to the Mexico border.

“This is a major milestone for a California icon,” said the Center’s Tiffany Yap. “Mountain lions are a marvel, but too many across the Golden State are struggling in the diminished and fractured wild places where they live. I’m celebrating this as a new chapter for pumas, and I hold so much hope for their future.”

Watch and share our celebratory video on Facebook or Instagram.

Mexico Proposes to Shrink Safe Zone for Vaquitas

Officials in Mexico are proposing to shrink a protected area in the Gulf of California that sustains the world’s last vaquita porpoises — the most endangered marine mammals in existence, with only about 10 remaining.

The proposal, reviewed by journalists at Mongabay, would reduce the zone in which gillnet fishing is now forbidden and let dangerous vessel traffic into places where it’s currently banned. Those increased threats, in a narrow stretch of ocean, could drive vaquitas extinct.

“Instead of expanding enforcement, the government is surrendering the vast majority of the vaquitas’ habitat to the very fishing gear that kills them,” the Center’s Alex Olivera told Mongabay.

Raise your voice to demand that the Mexican government do more to help vaquitas.

In Court to Protect Hellbenders

This week the Center filed a lawsuit to make the Fish and Wildlife Service set a binding date to finalize Endangered Species Act protection for eastern hellbender salamanders.

The agency was supposed to have made that decision in December. Instead, under the Trump administration, the Service postponed it — indefinitely putting off extending federal protection to all hellbenders. (Right now only the Ozark and Missouri River populations have safeguards, and that’s thanks to years of Center work.)

The largest North American amphibians, hellbenders can grow up to 2 feet long and top 4 pounds. They breathe through their skin and swallow prey almost as big as themselves — adaptations that evolved more than 160 million years ago. Now they face tremendous threats from pollution of the rivers and streams where they live.

The Revelator: Exhibiting Extinction

In her new book Ghosts Behind Glass, historian Dolly Jørgensen takes readers through dozens of museum exhibits about extinction. It’s a haunting book, but it’s not really about grief. It’s an examination of how we tell stories of our recent losses — and how those stories can motivate action against ongoing environmental crises.

Head to The Revelator to get details on her book and learn about all the amazing species that were declared extinct in 2025.

Center Analysis: Idle Wells, Active Threat

There’s a hidden threat lurking in many California neighborhoods: idle oil and gas wells.

A Center analysis of California public data found that at least 4,449 idle wells are within 3,200 feet of a school, hospital, eldercare center, park, or playground. Idle wells can leak methane — explosive at high concentrations — and cancer-causing gases like benzene into the air and water supplies. That puts nearly 3,800 sensitive sites across California at risk. Meanwhile oil and gas companies have provided less than 1% of the money in bonds needed to clean up their onshore wells.

Explore our interactive map to see if a sensitive spot near you is also near an idle well.

That's Wild: Humpbacks Share Bubble Net Culture

Humpback whales have long been observed creating carefully shaped nets of bubbles with their blowholes to catch fish. Now a new study shows that they also teach other humpbacks the technique, as individuals who haven’t been seen making bubble nets in the past are more likely to start doing it once they spend time with those who do. And that cultural communication could help them to survive as the climate changes.

Watch a video about the ingenious feeding method.

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Photo credits: Bearded seal courtesy iNaturalist; gray wolf courtesy NPS; screenshot of mountain lion video courtesy NPS; vaquita marina by Barbara Taylor/NOAA; eastern hellbender by Brian Gratwicke/Flickr; Yangtze River dolphin skeleton by Dolly Jørgensen (used with permission); idle wells graphic by Isabel Stein/Center for Biological Diversity; humpback whales feeding by Kay White/NPS.

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