Ribbon Seal Gets Raw Deal

I’ve written a good deal about the illegal negligence of polar bears by the Bush Administration. Under George W. Bush, the government has repeatedly refused to meet deadlines to provide a decision about whether to protect polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. The Bush Administration has even defied a federal court order setting a deadline for such a decision.

However, it would be wrong to say that the polar bear has been singled out for particular negligence. Many species have been denied even a review to determine whether they need legal protection. In recent days, another animal joined their ranks: The ribbon seal.

The National Marine Fisheries Service was required by law to give a determination on a petition to list the ribbon seal as needing protection under the Endangered Species Act by last Friday. However, the NMFS broke the law, and refused to provide the required determination.

A ribbon seal is a beautiful animal. Instead of the typical dull colors of most seals, ribbon seals have rings of white around their necks, their lower backs, and shoulders near the front fins. They’re unforgettable to anyone who has seen one, but few people have seen one, and in the future no one may ever see a ribbon seal again.

The reason ribbon seals are at risk of extinction is the same as the reason that polar bears are at risk of extinction. Both are arctic mammals that depend upon sea ice for their survival. As the Seal Conservation Society explains, ribbon seals give birth and raise their young on sea ice in the warmer months of the year. With summer sea ice in the Arctic quickly disappearing, ribbon seals may soon be unable to bear and raise new pups.

Just as the reason for the ribbon seal’s imperilment is the same as that of the polar bear, so is the reason for its neglect. Ribbon seals depend on Arctic habitat around Alaska, including the Chukchi Sea, where the federal government just awarded leases for crude oil and natural gas. The ribbon seal’s dependence upon sea ice being melted away by climate change could also force the federal government, under the Endangered Species Act, to finally take action to combat global warming. That would mean an end to the record profits currently being enjoyed by dirty fossil fuel corporations, and that would mean an end to the extraordinary influence of those corporations over politicians in Washington D.C.

It isn’t just ribbon seals and polar bears that are endangered, you see. Big oil companies also worry that their power is threatened. The federal government has made its choice, and is protecting big oil, even though doing so means breaking the law.

American citizens must make a choice as well. Will we continue our participation in the dirty energy economy that runs roughshod over the law and pushes the natural world to the limits of endurance? Will we ignore the very real deadlines that face thousands of species like the ribbon seal and the polar bear? Will we pretend that our own species has not become endangered as well?

To find out more, visit the ribbon seal resource page at the Center for Biological Diversity.