Wildlife Agency Reversal on Walrus Protections Needs Explaining

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to “offer more than a cursory explanation” as to why Pacific walrus no longer qualified as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a win for a conservation group.

The agency said in 2011 that the walrus faced a number of threats, including sea-ice loss and subsistence hunting, and qualified for listing under the act. Its 45-page decision came in response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity.

The decision contained specific findings and explained why those findings justified listing, according to the U.S. Court ...