The State of Alaska and the North Slope Borough filed a complaint on Nov. 16 against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to have Arctic ringed seals removed from the Endangered Species List.
The federal agency listed ringed seals as an endangered species in 2012 using obsolete methods to calculate the effect that climate change would eventually have on the population, and limited commercial activities in the ringed seal’s habitat, the suit claims.
The endangered species listing has led to the designation of hundreds of millions of acres as “critical habitat” for the species, including coastal and marine waters in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. According to the complaint, this “directly interferes with lawful activities occurring in Alaska and conducted by its citizens, including activities within the North Slope Borough. These activities include oil and gas exploration and production, mining and mineral production, navigation dredging, in-water construction activities, commercial fishing, and subsistence hunting and fishing.”
So often, federal policy surrounding Alaska is made based on inaccurate information and a ‘lock it up’ mentality by those who have either never been here or haven’t truly investigated what is going on.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor
Alaska filed the suit to recognize the health and strength of the ring seal population and to open up opportunities for commercial development.
The Arctic ringed seal has an extensive habitat. The species is found in the Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay; Hudson Bay; the Beaufort and Chukchi seas; the White, Barents and Kara seas, the Russian Arctic coast and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The current population is estimated to be in the millions and is believed to be stable or increasing. Aerial surveys estimate there are 470,000 ringed seals in portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas and the U.S. portion of the Bering Sea alone. These areas constitute a small portion of the species’ total global habitat, the suit notes.
“NMFS’ decision to list ringed seals was not a rational application of the Endangered Species Act” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang. “Ringed seals number in the millions and face no immediate threats, so the population simply doesn’t meet the definition of a ‘threatened species.’ NMFS then compounded their irrational approach by rejecting the state’s delisting petition, which was based on state-collected science since the listing that demonstrates the seal’s continued health and resilience. The state is filing this lawsuit to bring rationality back to implementation of the ESA and its regulations.”
The complaint states, “In listing the Arctic ringed seal as a threatened species in 2012, NMFS determined that the principal threat to the species is habitat alteration stemming from climate change, relying heavily on the climate projections in the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007). Yet in making the 90-day finding, NMFS failed to evaluate the species’ status using the more recent analysis of projected climate change presented in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (2013), or to consider scientific data on the responses to ringed seals to observed habitat loss since the 2012 listing.
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“So often, federal policy surrounding Alaska is made based on inaccurate information and a ‘lock it up’ mentality by those who have either never been here or haven’t truly investigated what is going on,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. “That is especially true when it comes to wildlife and marine life in our great state. All we are asking is that federal agencies truly follow the science, and not just rhetoric or myths. We believe there can be a balance between protecting species that need to be protected while still allowing reasonable development. The ringed seals are a prime example of a species that is actually thriving and does not belong on the Endangered Species List. Let’s protect what needs to be protected but remove unnecessary protections that do nothing but hinder responsible development, which is vital to the future of our state.”
5 Comments
There is an underlying current here, that’s the fact NMFS is in bed with NPFMC and have been for decades and it has become difficult to separate the two when it comes to these matters, the trawl industry has no where else to go in the Bering Sea except North now that species are in severe decline thanks to over trawling, they would want you to place the blame on climate change and silly things like predation, no, not when you strip the seas of several metric tons of fish and bycatch every single year. The NPFMC eyes the Northern Bering Sea as a gold mine ripe for the pickins with zillions to be made and they will use their tool the NMFS to achieve this goal, the NMFS has no interest in conservation, they never had and never will.
More proof that our two RINO Senators aren’t doing their jobs. They sit in D.C. and collect a pay check. Live life to its fullest and have no clue what is happening around them. I think you could hit Lisa in the head with a board and get more satisfaction. She doesn’t want to get involved with any Alaska issues for lack of loosing her position on the liberal round table.
But, look Neil – they do want to get involved with Alaskan issues: “Sullivan teams with Murkowski to help Dems advance same-sex marriage law” Lol We live in such a clown world where our reps in D.C. vote to make us anything but human instead of saving our great state!
“Alaska filed the suit to recognize the health and strength of the ring seal population“. The opposite is true.
Stupid comments and article.
Ever been on a seal hunt with natives ? I have. The dirty little secret is when a seal is needing to breathe it pokes its head out of the water and the instant it does it gets a dozen rounds of lead installed in its head , then it sinks to the bottom of the sea. Later in the week the beachcombers find the rotting seals wash up on the shoreline.
I’ve seen it and watched it