April 28, 2024 — Alaska’s fight against burdensome seal protections continued Thursday, when attorneys for the state and federal government debated whether the feds properly allocated a vast coastal area under the Endangered Species Act.
In April 2022, the National Marine Fisheries Service — also known as NOAA Fisheries — designated critical habitat off the coast of Alaska for Arctic ringed seals and the Beringia distinct population segment of bearded seals as required by the Endangered Species Act. The move came 10 years after the agency listed both species as “threatened” under the act, as actions to designate critical habitat for the seals were deferred when NOAA’s proposed listings were challenged in court.
NOAA’s legal challenges led to a settlement that allowed the agency to complete a final determination of critical habitat in 2022. But now that NOAA has designated critical habitat — 257,000 square miles for the ringed seal and 273,000 square miles for the bearded seals — Alaska claims too much land was designated and that the species are not even threatened.
“By comparison, the state of Texas contains 268,000 square miles while California contains 163,000 square miles,” Alaska wrote in its 2023 complaint. “All of this critical habitat is occupied by members of the two seal species, which are among the most common marine mammals found in the Arctic region.”