Fish & Wildlife to conduct polar bear review

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it plans to conduct a review of the status of polar bears, seeking information such as population trends and habitat conditions for the bears. The review, a five-year review under the terms of the Endangered Species Act, comes as a consequence of the bears being listed as threatened in 2008. FWS conducted its last five-year review of the species in 2017.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register on Oct. 5, FWS seeks public comments with information relevant to the new review by Dec. 6.

The listing of the polar bear came as one of several ESA listings relating to the potential long-term impacts of climate change on wildlife habitats. Thus, although the bears are relatively abundant, the listing resulted from the anticipated long-term decline in the Arctic sea ice that the bears depend on for hunting, breeding and feeding.

The listing of the polar bear has proven contentious: While environmental organizations support the resulting protection of the bears, people and organizations with economic interests in the Arctic have expressed concern about the economic impacts of restrictions designed to protect a species which has a substantial population.

Particularly contentious was the designation in 2010 of 187,157 square miles of polar bear critical habitat, including a vast offshore area and polar bear denning habitat along Alaska’s northern coast - under the terms of the ESA an application for a permit for an activity that may impact a protected species must assess any potential impacts on the species’ critical habitat. In a federal court case challenging the designation, in 2013 the Alaska District Court rejected the designation. However, in 2016 the 9th Circuit court reversed the District Court decision. With the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently declining to take up the case, the critical habitat designation remained in place.

- ALAN BAILEY