Federal court refuses to remove seal from Alaska's endangered species list
A former oil and gas lawyer and US federal judge said current trends show no sign that people will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid a significant rise in global temperatures later this century. Alaska District Court Judge Joshua Kindred concluded that there was no evidence of a reduction in emissions. He made the announcement while rejecting requests from the State of Alaska and the North Slope to remove the Arctic ringed seal from the list of endangered species.
Let us explain: the seal is common in waters near Arctic Alaska, its future survival is threatened by warming caused by human-caused climate change.
The state and locality sued the National Marine Fisheries Service after the agency denied their request to delist the ringed seal. Federal protections for endangered Arctic species have led to declines in oil and gas production in northern Alaska, and officials have repeatedly tried to roll back those protections to allow development they say is important to the state's economic health.
In the lawsuit, state prosecutors said the federal agency improperly excluded an optimistic climate change scenario, known as RCP 2.6, when considering the petition. The plaintiffs also argued that the denied petition to list the Arctic walrus should have provided guidance for delisting the seal, and that the failure to properly analyze the biological data led to the National Marine Fisheries Service's erroneous decision.
Federal Judge Kindred found the opposite, rejecting all arguments. On the issue of climate change, he concluded: “Because current trends point to continued high greenhouse gas emissions and the litigation did not provide evidence to support the dramatic change in worldwide emissions envisioned in RCP 2.6, it was prudent for NMFS to withdraw RCP 2.6 from consideration.”
On the walrus issue, Kindred agreed with federal biologists' contention that ringed seals are more vulnerable to climate change than walruses because young seals rely on snow insulation to stay warm. As the climate warms, snowpack is expected to decrease.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said he was disappointed by the court's decision: “Although we have not yet decided on next steps as we continue to review the decision , we are shocked that the court appears to apply a higher threshold for delisting species than for listing species. There is no difference in the law, and the state continues to believe that NMFS should allow the process to evolve and conduct a thorough assessment of species that have been shown to have healthy populations.”
He added that the decision “also undermines the original purpose of the Endangered Species Act, which was to truly protect species on the brink of extinction – it is now being used as a weapon to stop development, despite the lack of significant evidence of population decline.”
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