ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The question of whether Pacific walruses are a threatened species will be decided in federal court.
An environmental group sued the Trump administration Thursday over its failure to list the Arctic marine mammals as threatened because of diminished sea ice — their primary habitat — brought on by climate warming.
During the Obama administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 2011 that walruses deserve the additional protection of being declared threatened.
However, a final decision was delayed because agency officials said other species were a higher priority.
In October, facing a court-ordered deadline for a final decision, the agency reversed course and said it could not conclude with certainty that walruses would be affected by ice loss because they have shown an ability to forage from shoreline resting areas.
Emily Jeffers, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said walruses need sea ice for far more than foraging.
It’s necessary “pretty much for all of their essential life functions, from mating to nursing to molting to resting,” she said.
Walrus in recent years have been forced to the shores of Alaska and Russia in late summer because of a lack of sea ice. That made them vulnerable to predators and trampling of their young by other walruses spooked by airplanes, polar bears or other causes, Jeffers said.
“Congregating on shore has a lot of costs and mortality risks,” Jeffers said. “That’s why they prefer the ice. So I think it’s kind of disingenuous for the Fish and Wildlife Service to say they can just move onto land without addressing the costs.”
