After almost a decade of delays, the federal government is moving forward on designating critical habitat for two species of threatened seal. What was supposed to be accomplished during the Obama administration has been dragged out by legal challenges.
The Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are home to a variety of marine mammals, including bearded and ringed seals. Though both species are in relative abundance, long-term projections forecast a threat to the once-extensive sea ice the seals live on. As a result, the species were listed as threatened in 2012 under the Endangered Species Act.
But because their numbers aren’t low yet, and the threat comes from their loss of habitat, Jon Kurland with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the seals should have also gotten what’s called critical habitat designation.
“Critical habitat is areas within the geographical area occupied by a species that have physical or biological features essential to the conservation of that species, and may need special management over time,” Kurland said.
For ringed seals and bearded seals specifically, their habitat areas need enough sea ice to breed and nurse their pups, and to provide food. As a result, Kurland said the proposed critical habitat area comprises a huge chunk of Arctic waters.
“It’s necessarily large because both of these species have really broad geographic distributions and they range widely,” Kurland said. “It’s the seasonality of that ice coverage that largely influences their habitat use.”
