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Issues & Action
> Endangered Species Act (ESA)
>Polar Bear Listing
Polar Bears Still Waiting for Protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in early January 2008 that it would delay its decision on whether to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, citing the "complexity of the decision." Listing the bear would trigger restrictions on federal actions that could impact bears and their habitat. At the same time, the Bush Administration finalized its 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan that would allow oil companies to start drilling in the areas of Alaska's oceans that are most critical to the continued survival of the polar bear, including the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.
Polar bears spend most of their lives on sea ice. They use it to hunt ringed seals, their primary prey, and the only ice seal that lives under the frozen ice cap. Polar bears hunt ribbon and bearded seals in broken ice. The summer of 2007 set a record low for sea ice in the Arctic with just 1.65 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.
Audubon activists generated thousands of comments in support of listing the polar bear in March 2007 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service solicited public input.
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