The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is set to make a court-ordered decision Monday on whether to recommend listing the Pacific walrus as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, but it could take some time for the public to know what that decision is.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bruce Woods, the decision becomes effective when it is printed in the Federal Register -- which works on it for a few days before the register goes into a reading room, where it will be available to the public a day before it's published.
Woods says the policy has changed within the last few years. The Fish and Wildlife Service used to issue press releases on publications, but they’re now delayed until publications reach the reading room in case of changes.
The decision comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2008, which sued after the Fish and Wildlife Service missed a 90-day deadline to determine whether its petition to list the walrus as threatened or endangered had merit. The service was given a Jan. 31 deadline to make its decision.
Earlier this month, the Federal Marine Mammal Commission recommended the walrus be listed as threatened or endangered. The commission says walruses are facing threats from shrinking sea ice, which they use for feeding and giving birth.
Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say they've seen a steady decline in sea ice, and say summer sea ice could disappear by 2030.
Contact Jackie Bartz at jbartz@ktuu.com and Lori Tipton at ltipton@ktuu.com
