A ringed seal peers out from a snow cave. Ringed seals depend on sea ice and on the snow that accumulates atop the ice. (Photo by Brendan P. Kelley/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NOAA Fisheries)
A federal appeals court on Friday affirmed the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 2024 decision rejecting attempts to strip Arctic ringed seals of Endangered Species Act protections.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s 2024 ruling concerning a 2022 lawsuit filed against the federal agency by the state of Alaska and the North Slope Borough. The state and borough had been seeking to compel NMFS to delist ringed seals, meaning remove the threatened listing status that had been enacted in 2012.
The appeals court agreed with the March 20, 2024, ruling by then-U.S. District Court Judge Joshua Kindred that found NMFS had acted properly when it rejected the state and borough petition for delisting.
The agency was reasonable in its use of climate change projections and its consideration of science about the seals’ response to sea ice loss, the appeals court said in its ruling. “In sum, NMFS reasonably determined that the petition did not present new information indicating that delisting the Arctic ringed seal may be warranted,” the ruling said.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which intervened in the case on behalf of NMFS, welcomed the decision.
“I’m so relieved these adorable seals will keep their Endangered Species Act protections,” Marlee Goska, Alaska staff attorney for the environmental organization, said in a statement. “The science is overwhelmingly clear that climate change is threatening the seals’ existence. The court rightly recognized there’s no scientific or legal reason for Alaska’s cruel attempt to strip away safeguards these seals need to survive our rapidly heating world.”
Ronald Opsahl, a senior assistant Alaska attorney general, said the state is reviewing the decision to determine possible future steps.
In a statement, Opsahl said the state continues to believe that the lower court ruling was wrong. “And, with its opinion, the Ninth Circuit seems to endorse the double standard between requests that an agency consider delisting a species and requests to list a species. This double standard finds no basis in the Endangered Species Act,” he said. The court should have considered whether the state had provided sufficient information to suggest delisting may be warranted, he said. “Instead of finding that recent population studies and climate forecasts present new information, the panel deferred to the agencies’ disregard of this new information.”
Friday’s appeals court ruling is the latest event in a long history of litigation over Endangered Species Act protections for Arctic Alaska seals that are dependent on sea ice.
The 2012 threatened listings for ringed and bearded seals were prompted by lawsuits filed by the Center for Biological Diversity. The state, borough, oil industry groups and others have filed lawsuits challenging those listings.
Last year, a U.S. District Court ruling provided a legal victory to the state by striking down NMFS’ plan for establishing critical habitat for ringed and ice seals. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason concluded that the agency failed to provide sufficient justification for designating such a broad geographic area, totaling 174 million acres, as protected critical habitat for the seals. The agency and the Center for Biological Diversity appealed her decision late last year, and the case is now pending at the 9th Circuit.
Friday’s ruling was not the first by the appeals court that affirmed threatened listings for ice seals. The court made a similar ruling in 2018 in response to a different lawsuit filed by the state and others that challenged the ringed seal listing. Two years earlier, the appeals court upheld the threatened listing for bearded seals.
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