We’ve been going on and on (and on and on) about how great the Obama administration has been about repealing Bush-era rules and provisions that have been detrimental to the environment. Well, every so often, the breaks don’t go our way (when our = environmentally-minded folks), and today we have an instance of such an unfortunate event. The administration has denied a petition granting endangered species status to Alaska’s spotted seals, which are threatened by habitat loss stemming from climate change.

The New York Times reports that the National Marine Fisheries Service exists and is a real thing, but more importantly denied a petition brought by environmentalists asking for spotted seals to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. Interestingly and frustratingly, the agency “acknowledged that spotted seals’ sea ice habitat is declining but predicted the animals would migrate to suitable sites or adapt to their changing environment.” Basically, that it can deal with climate change. From the Times:

Environmentalists, who had petitioned for the listing by citing threats to the seal from Arctic oil and gas development and melting sea ice, expressed outrage over the decision.

“The Arctic is experiencing a rapid meltdown, and yet the Obama administration refuses to acknowledge that sea ice loss is jeopardizing the spotted seal in U.S. waters,” said Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The agency, by the way, also said that, hey, there are a lot of these seals out there (like 200,00), so that’s not really endangered. It also suggested listing spotted seals in Russia and China as endangered, which would affect some trade policies. So, there’s that. Anyhow, the environmentalists are calling politics on the Obama administration, the administration is claiming they’re just looking at the science and going from there, and I don’t really know who’s correct.

UPDATE: Our intrepid blogger Hamida Kinge has informed me that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which itself is part of the Commerce Department, and I also made fun of the NOAA for existing here, kinda like I just did earlier in this post for the NMFS. So, if any of you have any new jokes for me, please send them my way.

photo credit: jomilo75’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons. There are lots of spotted seal pictures there. If you’re into that.