Polar bears were the first animals to gain Endangered Species Act protection as a result of climate change. At a press conference announcing their listing some five years ago, then Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that warming was shrinking the sea ice essential to the bear’s survival.
Now, through the work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two marine mammals have been afforded similar protection.
Bearded seals and ringed seals both rely on sea ice for breeding and nursery habitat. Ringed seals rear their young in snow caves built on ice floes, while bearded seals tend to their pups on ice packs near shallow waters. Both species also require floating ice during summer molting.
As we reported in an earlier Earth Wise segment, 2012 saw Arctic sea ice at the lowest levels since satellite record keeping began in 1979. Late fall ice formation, decreasing snow depths, and an earlier spring thaw all signal tough times ahead for seal survival.
Several days before Christmas, NOAA scientists pushed for Endangered Species Act protection for bearded and ringed seals in Alaska, parts of Russia, and other regions of the Arctic. Their recommendation was based on the best available science, which indicates, “sea ice and snow cover are likely to further decrease in the foreseeable future.”
The listing will not impact subsistence harvest of seals by native Alaskans, but it will enable NOAA to work with local, state, and Native partners to determine if there are areas of critical habitat that need protection, to ensure the seals are able to persevere in a warming world.
Web Links
Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=polar-bears-threatened
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/21/us-usa-seals-listing-idUSBRE8BK18920121221
NOAA
Photo, taken on November 16, 2012, courtesy of Visit Greenland via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.