State sues over ringed seal listing

The state of Alaska has appealed in federal court over the Fisheries Service listing of the Arctic ringed seal as threatened

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The State of Alaska has appealed in the federal District Court in Alaska against the listing by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the Arctic ringed seal as threatened, under the terms of the Endangered Species Act. The Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute launched a similar lawsuit in late December.

The listing of the ringed seal came as one of a series of Endangered Species Act listings, based on the theory that, under the impacts of global warming, the predicted long-term decline in Arctic sea ice cover may threaten any species that depends on the ice for its habitat, regardless of the species’ current abundance. The Fisheries Service has said that the snow caves that the ringed seals use to nurse and protect their cubs constitute a particular problem as the climate warms.

The state says that it is challenging the listing because of the state’s role in management of state wildlife resources and in recognition of the state’s duty to responsibly develop the state’s resources to the maximum benefit of state residents. The Arctic ringed seal listing will deter activities such as fishing; oil and gas exploration and development; transportation; and tourism within and offshore Alaska, the state said in a complaint filed in District Court on March 6.

The ringed seal is the most abundant of the seals that live in seasonally or annually ice-covered Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, the state said. Globally, the population of the Arctic ringed seal is estimated to be in the millions, with no data that indicate that the population is currently in decline, the state said.

The Fisheries Service decided to list the ringed seal as a consequence of evaluating climate models that project climate change and associated impacts on sea ice 100 years into the future. But the Fisheries Service did not provide any data demonstrating the biological impacts of decreased sea ice on ringed seal populations, nor did the service provide evidence for observed population declines as a consequence of reduced sea-ice habitat or factors such as decreased snow cover, the state said. Nor did the agency provide its rationale for relying on a 100-year model for its population decline predictions, rather than using a more reliable, shorter time period, the state said.

And the Fisheries Service has arbitrarily used different future time periods in models for predictions of climate and Arctic sea ice cover in making listing determinations for different Arctic species, the state said.

The state also claims that the Fisheries Service did not provide an adequate response to questions and issues that the state raised during the public comment period for the proposed listing of the seals.

In December the Fisheries Service published a proposed designation of critical habitat for the Arctic ringed seal. The critical habitat area encompasses the entirety of the U.S. Beaufort and Chukchi seas, with the sea ice itself and seal’s prey forming critical habitat features. Any federal action, such a the processing of a federal permit, that may result in an impact on the seals or their habitat will trigger an agency consultation, with the possibility of mitigation measures for the avoidance of seal impacts being imposed on permitted activities.