U.S. proposes calling two types of seals threatened

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Two types of seals should be granted protection under the Endangered Species Act because the Arctic ice and snow they depend on is vanishing due to climate change, a U.S. government agency said on Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration formally proposed threatened listings for ringed seals and bearded seals.

Both types of seals need floating sea ice, especially in late spring and early summer when they are caring for newborn pups. Ringed seals also need deep snowdrifts because pups are born in snow caves burrowed by mother seals, NOAA said.


The late-winter and springtime rains and early melts that are occurring with greater frequency in the Arctic limit snow cave formation and expose the newborns to dangers, NOAA officials said.

"The ringed and bearded seals are especially dependent on sea ice and snow cover," NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.

The populations proposed for listing are concentrated in the Arctic and North Pacific waters off Alaska, where summer sea ice has been diminishing over the past decades, but range as far east as the north Atlantic and as far west as Siberia.

All the populations proposed for listing are in danger of going extinct in the foreseeable future, NOAA said.

Arctic sea ice cover this year dropped to the third lowest level since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

SPECIES IN TROUBLE


If NOAA follows through with a formal listing, the seals will be the first Alaska animals granted Endangered Species Act protections because of climate change since polar bears were listed as threatened in 2008.

Speegle said NOAA's proposal was evidence that warming Arctic conditions were bad for more than just polar bears, adding, "I think it indicates that climate change is having an impact on the habitat here for a wide variety of species."

"We're seeing that all species in the Arctic are in trouble," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that sued to secure listing for the seals, polar bears and other animals.

The proposal, which came on a deadline established in a court settlement between the Center for Biological Diversity and NOAA, was an important milestone, Noblin said. She noted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear.


"We're hoping that NOAA will make more of an effort to address the real threat to the seal species, which is greenhouse gas emissions," she said.

Following a 60-day public comment period on NOAA's listing proposal, the agency has a year to make a final determination.

There are other species dwelling in icy waters that federal scientists have determined are at risk.


The Fish and Wildlife Service is considering a proposal to list the Pacific walrus as threatened and faces a January 31 deadline for a decision. NOAA in October listed two populations of ice-dwelling spotted seals as threatened, although both are outside the United States.

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