On Monday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling against a National Marine Fisheries Service (Service) decision to list bearded seals as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (Act) due to future impacts of climate change. The lawsuit, which was filed by the State of Alaska and several industry groups which will be impacted by the listing and resulting critical habitat designations, was originally ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in a lower court in 2014.
The original listing was based on the Service’s assertion that climate change will result in imminent loss of polar sea ice, necessary habitat for the seals, which will lead to a population decline in the species by the year 2095. However, there is no current decline in the seal population’s numbers, and opponents of the listing have cited a lack of scientific basis and evidence for the action. While the listing has no immediate impact on California, the ruling sets a distinct precedent going forward for federal agencies to use speculative information about extremely long-term, future impacts of climate change on species and to propose listing those species under the Act without any actual current decline in population.