This one slipped under the radar back in September.
Alaska prevails in challenge to critical habitat designation for threatened seals
https://www.courthousenews.com/alaska-prevails-in-challenge-to-critical-habitat-designation-for-threatened-seals/
It’s back to the drawing board for the federal agency tasked with designating critical habitat for ringed and bearded seals in Alaska after a federal judge sided on Thursday with the state, which said the agency overreached in the protections.
In 2022 the National Marine Fisheries Service designated over 160 million acres of water spanning from the Alaska shoreline to the international dateline in much of the Bering Sea, as well as the shelf of the Beaufort Sea and all of the Chukchi Sea, as critical habitat for the seals…
US District Judge Sharon Gleason agreed with the state that the National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t act in accordance with the Endangered Species Act when making the designations.
DB2