By Editor, on December 20th, 2011 Jill Burke | ALASKA DISPATCH
It’s nearly guaranteed to be a monumental showdown, the kind Alaska seems to spawn regularly. On Wednesday, a handful of lawyers will volley before a federal judge over whether the U.S. government properly chose to shut down cod and mackerel fisheries in Southwest Alaska, giving the well being of an endangered marine mammal preference over the livelihood of scores of fisherman.
Read the full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on December 13th, 2011 Alex DeMarban | ALASKA DISPATCH
The National Marine Fisheries Service has renewed plans that may lead to a listing of the ribbon seals under the Endangered Species Act, bringing to three the number of ice-dependent seals in Alaska that could be protected by the act.
The agency rejected a ribbon-seal listing in 2008 but said new information warrants a second look. That’s disappointing news, said Rick Rogers, executive director with the pro-industry Resource Development Council in Anchorage.
The combined population of ribbon, bearded and ringed seal populations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas exceed 1 million animals, so why should they fall under the act’s protections, he wondered.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on November 22nd, 2011 Alex DeMarban | ALASKA DISPATCH
A federal judge upheld the three-year-old endangered listing for the biologically distinct Cook Inlet beluga whale today, rejecting all state arguments and noting that the state’s beluga conservation programs are ineffective and underfunded.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on September 2nd, 2011 By Dan Joling | ASSOCIATED PRESS
An investigation of a federal scientist in Alaska whose observations of drowned polar bears spurred national publicity on climate warming was started after allegations made by another Interior Department employee.
Read full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on August 26th, 2011  State of Alaska press release
ANCHORAGE–The State of Alaska filed an appeal challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2008 listing of the polar bear as a threatened species. The state seeks to overturn a June decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that upheld the listing. Read more->
By Editor, on July 30th, 2011 The federal agency that this month suspended a veteran scientist now says its case has nothing to do with an article he wrote about polar bears that apparently drowned, permitting issues or scientific integrity.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
Read Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility article with links to source documents.
By Editor, on July 28th, 2011  Becky Bohrer | ASSOCIATED PRESS
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.
Charles Monnett is an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
Read full article in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.
By Editor, on July 15th, 2011 By Alexandra Gutierrez | kucb.org
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released their annual stock assessment report today. While the East Coast continues to struggle with overfishing, commercial stocks in the Pacific Ocean remain abundant and healthy overall.
Alaska’s stocks seem to be in particularly good shape by comparison. NOAA lists 40 stocks as subject to overfishing, and not one of those is in Alaska waters.
Read more at KUCB.org.
Read NOAA Press Release.
By Editor, on July 13th, 2011 CBC News
Canada is set to include the polar bear on its list of species at risk, but not as a threatened or endangered species.
The federal government gave notice this month that it intends to list the Arctic animal as a species of special concern — one level below threatened and two levels below endangered — under the Species at Risk Act.
Read full article at CBC.ca.
By Editor, on June 30th, 2011 By Sophia Pearson | BLOOMBERG
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act was reasonable, a federal judge ruled, rejecting challenges that it limits resource development in Alaska.
The agency’s decision “represents a reasoned exercise” of its discretion based on the facts and the available science in 2008 when it made the determination, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan inWashington wrote today in a 116-page ruling granting the government’s request to uphold the decision.
Read full article in Bloomberg.
Read full Memorandum Opinion: IN RE: POLAR BEAR ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LISTING AND 4(d) RULE LITIGATION – MDL 1993
By Editor, on May 16th, 2011 By Naomi Klouda | HOMER TRIBUNE
Can Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists do impartial work on a team mandated to come up with a recovery plan for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale?
Apparently not without representing the state’s interest or positions, said James Balsiger, the regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Read more in the Homer Tribune
By Editor, on May 15th, 2011  Arctic Slope Regional Corp. today filed suit against the Department of the Interior over its unprecedented designation of more than 187,000 square miles as critical habitat for polar bears on Alaska’s North Slope, an area larger than the state of California, an ASRC press release said.
Read more in the Arctic Sounder.
By Editor, on March 24th, 2011 by Jim Burke | ALASKA DISPATCH
NORTH SLOPE–Construction workers for ENI Petroleum had just finished building the ice road connecting their land-based operations to a nearby island when a worker made a discovery that would bring them to a halt for days. There, on the edge of the manmade island not too far from where the road entered, was a polar bear. This wasn’t just any polar bear. On Friday, there, in the Beaufort Sea close to an oil industry drilling project, appeared a mother bear and her cub.
Read the full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on March 10th, 2011  Our suggestion... State of AK press release
JUNEAU–The State of Alaska has filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) over its unprecedented, expansive designation of critical habitat for polar bears, which have been listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In a separate suit, the state is challenging the decision to list these bears as threatened.
The designation of 187,157 square miles of critical habitat for the polar bear, an area larger than 48 of the 50 states, is unnecessary in that the agency itself acknowledges that the designation will not provide substantial protection for the animals. Read more->
By Editor, on February 21st, 2011 by Dan Joling | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal judge will hear arguments next week in a case that speaks to a central question regarding Arctic animals affected by climate warming: When is a species endangered?
Read the full article in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on December 23rd, 2010  by Robin Bravender, Politico
WASHINGTON D.C.–The Obama administration is sticking with a George W. Bush-era decision to deny polar bears endangered species status.
In a court filing Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service defended the previous administration’s decision to give the polar bear the less-protective “threatened” species designation, a move that will frustrate environmentalists who hoped for stronger protections under the Endangered Species Act.
Read more in the Politico.
By Editor, on November 24th, 2010 Anchorage Daily News:
WASHINGTON– The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles of Alaska as a “critical habitat” for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/
By Roger Maynard, on July 3rd, 2010
By Roger Maynard, on May 1st, 2010 
by Paul Driessen / TOWNHALL.COM
First American Ann Bancroft and Norwegian Liv Arnesen trekked off across the Arctic in the dead of the 2007 winter, “to raise awareness about global warming,” by showcasing the wide expanses of open water they were certain they would encounter. Instead, icy blasts drove temperatures inside their tent to -58 F, while outside the nighttime air plunged to -103 F.
Read more at TownHall.com
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| Nate Beeler
The Columbus Dispatch
May 16, 2012
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Lynn Canal Map & Marine Traffic (refresh for current ship positions)
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editor@hainesnews.net
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