Conservation group sues to protect walrus
Originally published Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 1:15 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 5:55 p.m.
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A conservation group went to court Wednesday to force the federal government to consider adding Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species.
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for failing to act on a petition seeking protection for walrus under the Endangered Species Act.
Walrus are threatened by global warming that melts Arctic sea ice, according to the group, which was one of the parties that successfully petitioned to list polar bears as threatened. The group also has filed petitions to protect Arctic seals.
The walrus petition was filed in February. The Fish and Wildlife Service was required by law to decide within 90 days, on May 8, whether the petition had merit, triggering a more thorough review and a preliminary decision after 12 months.
Center for Biological Diversity attorney Rebecca Noblin of Anchorage said delays will harm walrus.
"Every day that goes by without protecting the walrus, we're emitting more greenhouse gases, accelerating the ice melt," Noblin said.
"In addition to the climate change, the other main threat is oil and gas development that continues to go forward without any consultation regarding walrus," she said.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Bruce Woods said Wednesday the agency anticipates making a decision on the petition but has limited resources. Agency decisions on endangered species listings are driven by litigation, he said, forcing the agency to rank actions by court order rather than species need.
Warming is blamed for Arctic sea ice shrinking to record low levels.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center said summer sea ice in 2008 reached the second lowest level, 1.74 million square miles, since satellite monitoring began in 1979. The loss was exceeded only by the 1.65 million square miles in 2007.
Like polar bears, listed as a threatened species by Kempthorne in May, walrus depend on sea ice to breed and forage.
Walrus dive from ice over the shallow outer continental shelf in search of clams and other benthic creatures. Females and their young traditionally use ice as a moving diving platform, riding it north like a conveyor belt as it recedes in spring and summer, first in the northern Bering Sea, then into the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.
Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, shared with the Russian Far East, for the last two years receded well beyond the outer continental shelf over water too deep for walruses to dive to reach clams. In fall 2007, herds congregated on Alaska and Siberia shores until ice re-formed.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, warming sea temperatures and sea ice loss may also be reducing walrus prey at the bottom of the ocean.
The group also hopes a listing could slow plans for offshore petroleum development. Oil companies in February bid on 2.7 million acres in the Chukchi Sea. Other lease sales are planned.
Noblin said the group was required to give 60 days notice of intent to sue but also waited to give the agency ample time to meet its obligation. She said it's clear the agency will not meet the 12-month deadline in February for a draft rule on the proposed listing.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has nearly completed a comprehensive population count of walrus coordinated with Russian counterparts.
The challenge has been "trying to finish grinding out the numbers between two languages and two divergent sets of scientists" to make sure they're comparing apples to apples and not "fruit salad," Woods said.
The numbers are anticipated no later than January and possibly by the end of the year, he said.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Global warming is a hoax. Even UN data shows "Warming has Stopped!" (see http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?F...). I must assume that such conservation groups try to completely destroy our economy. I wonder what kind of gangsters are behind these conservation groups.
I don't always agree with environmental groups and their tactics, but I'm glad to see that someone is stepping up to the plate for the walrus. Like polar bears, walruses are facing a serious loss-of-habitat threat from shrinking sea ice, and we need to ensure their survival.
TomH,
But where is the proof that man caused it? How is man responsible for every extinction? This has been happening for millions of years. This is getting beyond the point of insanity.
pragmatist -- There is no proof that man is causing global warming, any more than there is proof that man is causing the current cooling trend. On a scale of centuries, the earth is warming-- afterall, we're still emerging from the most recent ice age. It's been warming in fits and starts for the last 13,000 years. Why, for goodness sake, would we want to turn this around? Ice ages suck for most creatures on the surface of the earth. If anything, we should be mighty grateful for being alive during such a perfect climate.
Further, if we spend trillions of dollars to maybe "save the walrus and the polar bear", which other animal species will suffer as a consequence? Will it be moose, which are growing and expanding their range in response to more hospitable climates? Will it be salmon whose fry cannot survive the winters due to streams and ponds freezing solid? Besides, there is no possibility of walrus and polar bears going extinct without some major disruption, like a meteor impact or total nuclear war. Polar bears are only recently evolved from ursus horribulus since during the Pleistocene as a response to a cooling planet.
Should of stopped driving cars around back in the ice age.
They are going to keep this up until the natives up there are not going to be able to hunt anything. Natives that can't hunt end up being angry people with guns. Glad my family and I are interior natives.
Fact of the matter is that there is no global warming. If fact we are actually cooling now. It has nothing to do with man caused things, but is the sun spot activity that causes the fluctuation in climate on Earth and all planets in our solar system.
And the gangsters behind these type of conservation groups are the same BANKSTERS that are behind everything else bad that is happening on our planet right now.
The only species that is endangered right now is the human species.
www.infowars.com
www.prisonplanet.com
these groups are getting out of hand. they're never going to stop with the court filings to protect species from global warming because they can just argue that every species on earth is in danger from it. we're going to have to draw a line somewhere.
MORE BUNK.....Eco FREEKS. Got to save those Eco job's (city borough and state).
Boy, there's a lot of climatologists posting in this thread. You guys must sure be smart to be so certain of such a complex subject that you can distill ten-thousand word white papers down to "it's a hoax."
I met a guy who had a cat named Walrus once. I've always wondered about that.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.