Conservation group wants seals protected

ANCHORAGE — Fresh off a successful campaign to list polar bears as a threatened species, a conservation group Wednesday petitioned to provide Endangered Species Act protections to the bears' main prey because of global warming.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list ringed seals and two other species — spotted and bearded seals — as threatened or endangered.

All three seals live in the Bering, Chukchi or Beaufort seas off Alaska's coast and depend on sea ice that is receding rapidly, according to the petition.

"Ice is essential for them to give birth and rear their pups," said Shaye Wolf, a biologist and the lead author of the petition. "They won't be able to reproduce without ice."

The seals also rely on ice for molting.

Sheela McLean, NMFS spokeswoman in Alaska, said the agency had not received the petition Wednesday afternoon but is already reviewing seals. The Center for Biological Diversity in December petitioned the agency to list ribbon seals, and McLean said biologists were preparing status reviews for all four species. Each uses sea ice in different ways, she said.

NMFS is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Polar bears are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne two weeks ago announced polar bears would be listed as threatened because of sea-ice loss. The Center for Biological Diversity announced Tuesday it would sue to force the Interior Department to respond to its petition to list walrus as a threatened species because of threats from global warming and offshore petroleum development.

Wolf said warming is occurring at a pace exceeding predictions of the most advanced climate models. Winter sea-ice extent in 2006 and 2007 declined to a minimum that most climate models had forecast would not be reached until 2070, she said, and summer sea ice in 2007 shrank to record minimums.

Ringed seals are the most numerous of the seals that thrive off Alaska's coasts and the only seals that can survive in completely ice-covered waters.

Bearded seals are the largest true seals off Alaska's coast, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Bearded seals reproduce and rest on drifting pack ice.

Spotted seals are strongly associated with sea ice from autumn to late spring and bear young on drifting pack ice.