Comment from Jeff Vorberger

In submitting these comments, NOIA takes no position on the three DPSs NMFS has identified for the spotted seal. Rather, NOIA directs its comments to the assertion that the southern DPS is at risk due to global climate change, and to the characterization of risk to the spotted seal from oil and gas operations. NOIA believes it would be inconsistent with the Act to list the spotted seal as “threatened” or “endangered” based solely on the effects of global climate change, if any, on the species’ habitat. NMFS states that climate change may alter the habitats of the three identified spotted seal DPSs, noting that from late fall through spring, spotted seal habitat-use is closely associated with the distribution and characteristics of seasonal sea ice. The ice provides a dry platform away from land predators during the whelping, nursing, breeding, and molting periods. While variations in sea ice concentrations and thicknesses have been documented over the period when field observations have been made in portions of the spotted seal’s range, the assertion that loss of sea ice will occur requires assumptions about long term trends that derive from predictions from models. NMFS acknowledges the uncertainties associated with those predictions in the October 20 Notice. NMFS offers the opinion that the loss of sea ice habitat is a significant factor with respect to the southern DPS of the spotted seal, even though these animals have shown the ability to adapt to terrestrial sites. The difficulty with assigning causation to this factor is that this potential threat is not determined to occur within the “reasonably foreseeable future,” as that term has been defined and applied under the Act. The projected threats attributed to global climate change are not expected to occur until many decades in the future, and even then only assuming no significant intervening actions to address those potential threats.