Under the hammer: ice flows in the Chukchi sea are prime polar bear habitat, the WWF says
WWF demands Chukchi lease sale delay
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to immediately list the polar bear and the Endangered Species Act and to delay Wednesday’s sale of oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea in an area considered prime polar bear habitat.
WWF said it was “alarmed” that the decision on whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species had been delayed several times while the Chukchi lease sale by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service was being allowed to go ahead.
The organisation said the polar bear was entirely dependent on the preservation of its Arctic sea ice to survive. However, it said calls from the public and from scientists and conservationists for the Interior Department to take action to protect the habitat had been ignored.