Pacific Walrus (IMAGE)
Caption
A policy study in the journal Science calls for greater clarity and transparency in the rules used to apply the Endangered Species Act. For example, a 2017 decision not to protect the Pacific walrus was based on climate projections that went out only to 2060, because the US Fish & Wildlife Service considered conclusions beyond this date to be "based on speculation, rather than reliable prediction." However, five years earlier, the National Marine Fisheries Service listed the Arctic ringed seal as "threatened" based on modeling that was presented as "reliable" out to 2100. Both animals face similar threats from rapid losses of sea ice and snow cover, but no explanation was offered about why they were treated differently, using different assumptions in the models.
Credit
Joel Garlich-Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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