Ringed seal comment period extended

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has extended the public comment period from March 9 to March 31 for the proposed critical habitat designation for Arctic ringed seals, the agency announced on Jan. 30.

In 2012 NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service listed the seals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, because of projected future reductions in the extent of the Arctic sea ice on which the seals live. In December the agency published a proposed critical habitat for the seals. The area encompassing the critical habitat includes the entirety of the U.S. Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and the northern part of the Bering Sea.

With critical habitat features that include the sea-ice habitat that the seals use for lairs, and for activities such as basking and molting, the critical habitat area includes all areas of the ocean offshore Alaska typically covered with sea ice in the depths of the winter. Critical features also include the seals’ primary prey: Arctic cod, saffron cod, shrimps and amphipods.

The need to prevent actions that might destroy or adversely modify critical habitat features will become a basis for the permitting of activities planned for the critical habitat area. However, the critical habitat designation would not impact the subsistence hunting of seals by Alaska Natives, NOAA says.

- Alan Bailey