Comments closed April 8
Oppose Incidental Take of Polar Bears and Pacific Walruses
Fish and Wildlife Service · Beaufort Sea, North Slope of Alaska
- What
- Fish and Wildlife Service considers authorizing incidental take of polar bears and Pacific walruses in the Beaufort Sea and North Slope for oil and gas operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Association request would provide legal cover for industry activities that harass or harm marine mammals.
- Where
- Beaufort Sea, North Slope of Alaska, AK
- How much
- We have no figure for this fight yet; the agency’s own words are under Case.
- Decided
- Comments closed April 8, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read October 29, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur summary of the Federal Register 2026-04558 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchNo verified figure is on the record for this fight.
- DecidedApril 8, 2026, from Federal Register, the notice's DATES field (federalregister.gov API) ↗: “Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (see ADDRESSES, below) must be received by 11:59 pm eastern time on the closing date.”. Read October 29, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
Fish and Wildlife Service considers authorizing incidental take of polar bears and Pacific walruses in the Beaufort Sea and North Slope for oil and gas operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Association request would provide legal cover for industry activities that harass or harm marine mammals.
In the agency’s own words
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, received a request under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association to issue regulations facilitating the authorization of incidental, unintentional take of small numbers of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) during year-round oil and gas industry activities in the Beaufort Sea (Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf) and adjacent northern coast of Alaska. Take may result from oil and gas exploration, development, production, and transportation activities occurring for a period of 5 years. O…
The groups on this fight
One group is in on this fight
In on this fight means a link on this decision itself: the group's own regulations.gov comment on it, or a case filed over it naming the group; predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Alaska, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Sierra Club
In on this fight · linked
Filed its own comment on this decision on April 9, 2026.
Their comment on regulations.gov ↗ - Alaska Wilderness League
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska: Built around defending the Arctic Refuge from oil and gas drilling.
- Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska: Lead plaintiff in the November 2025 federal suit challenging the land exchange signed to put a road through the Izembek Wilderness.
- Northern Alaska Environmental Center
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Gates of the Arctic (Ambler Road), Alaska: First-named plaintiff in Northern Alaska Environmental Center v. Trump, the Ambler road suit filed in 2020.
- Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Tongass National Forest, Alaska: Southeast Alaska’s homegrown defender of the Tongass since 1970.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Who signs it
The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
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