Arctic Seal Threatened By Global Warming Denied Protection By Obama Administration

The spotted seal, a sea ice-dependent Arctic species, has been denied Endangered Species Act protection by the Obama Administration.

Disappointment: The Center for Biological Diversity has announced that the Obama administration denied Endangered Species Act protection for the spotted seal, a species whose habitat is rapidly melting away due to global warming.

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Sea ice is crucial for the survival of spotted seals (Phoca largha), as the females give birth and raise their pups on the solid ice. The early break-up of sea ice as a result of rising temperatures severely impacts the future of these animals.

Climate projections indicate that the spotted seal will lose 40 percent of its winter sea-ice habitat in the Bering and Okhotsk seas off Alaska and Russia by 2050.

According to the Center’s release, not only did the Obama administration deny ESA protection to the spotted seal, it is still considering a Bush-era offshore oil and gas development plan in the spotted seal habitat. The resulting noise pollution, heightened risk of oil spills, and related human disturbances promise to place additional pressure on the spotted seal’s fragile habitat.

Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, sharply criticized the current administration for favoring politics over science.

While its rhetoric may be better, when it comes to actual action in protecting endangered species, the Obama administration is indistinguishable from Bush.

Sound science and the protection of the environment still take a back seat to political expediency.

The finding was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in response to a May 2008 petition filed by the Center.

Somehow, the NOAA has reportedly concluded that the spotted seal will either migrate to a different habitat or “somehow adapt to a life on land”. The agency also determined that only a small portion of the spotted seal’s range is at risk.

The agency proposed listing for spotted seal populations in Liaodong Bay, China and Peter the Great Bay, Russia due to the threats of diminishing sea ice. However, the agency failed to propose protections for more than 98 percent of the world’s spotted seals that inhabit U.S. and Russian waters, claiming that declining sea ice does not threaten these populations.

In a sad twist of irony, the decision followed the release of new data that suggests there will be no summer sea ice in the Arctic within 20 years.

Today’s decision comes shortly after scientists announced that Arctic summer sea ice has reached its third-lowest minimum ever, and after scientists released new data suggesting that the Arctic will be ice free in the summer within 20 years.

There is no doubt that as the sea ice disappears due to global warming, the long-term survival of Arctic seal species disappears along with it.

Visit the Center for Biological Diversity to learn more.

Image: flickr.com/jomilo75/ / CC BY 2.0

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