A portion of bearded seals are again listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, because of the latest judgment from the U.S. District Court for Alaska.
The District Court determined May 12, that the Beringia distinct population segment of bearded seals, found specifically in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering seas, should be listed, according to a memo from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This designation for bearded seals goes back to December 2012 when the National Marine Fisheries Service published a rule listing the Beringia distinct population segment as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The reasoning for this decision, according to NOAA, was “due to foreseeable future decreases in sea ice and expected population declines associated with climate change.”
The U.S. District Court of Alaska vacated the “threatened” listing for bearded seals in July 2014, but that decision was appealed and overturned in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit two years later.
This new designation for bearded seals under the Endangered Species Act will not affect subsistence harvests of the animal, said Jon Kurland, the assistant regional administrator for protected resources with NOAA Fisheries in Juneau.
According to NOAA’s memo, there is no evidence that subsistence hunting of ice seals is negatively affecting the marine mammal’s population, and any regulation of the subsistence harvest is not anticipated at this time.
The designation of another ice seal from the Bering Sea is currently being reviewed.
The status of Arctic ringed seals is pending for appeal in the Ninth Circuit court as the subspecies is not listed under the Endangered Species Act.
