July 14, 2025 — The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed a lower court’s order blocking the state of Alaska’s efforts to delist ringed seals under the Endangered Species Act.
“National Marine Fisheries Service reasonably determined that new climate change projections were consistent with those it had considered at the time of its 2012 listing decision,” wrote the panel in a five-page order.
Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Circuit Judges Holly Thomas and Ana de Alba joined Bill Clinton-appointed Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jed Rakoff on the panel that reviewed the case and published a per curiam opinion.
The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the federal government in 2008 seeking to protect the ringed seal, Pusa hispida, along with the bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus, and the spotted seal, Phoca largha, under the Endangered Species Act.
Citing the increasing strain of climate change, the federal government granted the ringed seal protected status in 2012, which the Ninth Circuit first affirmed four years later.
The state of Alaska petitioned and then sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, seeking to delist the marine mammal on Nov. 15, 2022.
The state known as the Last Frontier criticized the wildlife protections that span hundreds of millions of acres, interfering with the North Slope’s industrial economy as well as hunting.