Court ruling keeps bearded seals on Endangered Species List

Bearded Seal Pup. (Photo courtesy NOAA)
An appeals court today upheld a federal decision to list a species of ice seals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that threw out the listing.
The National Marine Fisheries Service added two Arctic populations of bearded seals to the Endangered Species list in 2012, in part because the sea ice they depend on is rapidly disappearing due to climate change.
Groups including the Alas