Alaska judge rejects critical habitat designation for threatened bearded and ringed seals

A judge in Alaska has set aside afederal agency's action designating an area the size of Texas ascritical habitat for two species of threatened Arctic Alaska seals.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason found theNational Marine Fisheries Service did not explain why the entire70-million-hectarearea which includedwaters extending from St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea to theedge of Canadian waters in the Arctic was "indispensable" tothe recovery of the ringed and bearded seal populations.

Gleasonsaid the agency "abused its discretion" by not considering anyprotected areas to exclude or how other nations are conserving bothseal populations, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

She vacated the critical habitat designationand sent the matter back tothe agency for further work.

The decision came in a lawsuit brought by the state of Alaska,which claimed the 2022 designation was overly broad and could hamperoil and gas development in the Arctic and shipping to North Slopecommunities.

Julie Fair, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration, said the agency was reviewing the
decision.

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said the protected areas hadno sound basis in science.

"The federal government uses the same tactics again and again toprevent the people of Alaska from using their own land andresources," he said in a statement. "They identify an area oractivity they wish to restrict, and they declare it unusable underthe guise of conservation or preservation."

Bearded and ringed seals give birth and rear their pups on theice. They were listed as threatened in 2012 amid concerns withanticipated sea ice declines in the coming decades. The state, NorthSlope Borough and oil industry groups challenged the threatenedspecies designation, but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declinedto hear that case.

Gleason said the Endangered Species Act bars actions from beingauthorized if theywould likely jeopardize a threatened species. Given that, "an interim change" vacating the criticalhabitat designation would not be so disruptive, she said.