ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Polar bears will be listed as " threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.
Scientists predict that two thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear in the next 50 years because of declines in Arctic sea ice.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne made the announcement Wednesday afternoon, more than four months after a decision was due.
"I believe this decision is most consistent with the record and legal standards of the Endangered Species Act -- perhaps the least flexible law Congress has ever enacted," said Kempthorne.
"I am also announcing that this listing decision will be accompanied by administrative guidance and a rule that defines the scope of impact my decision will have, in order to protect the polar bear while preventing unintended harm to the society and economy of the United States," he said.
While there are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears now in the Arctic, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey predict two thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear in the next 50 years because of declines in Arctic sea ice.
Controversy over the status of the iconic polar bear is tied to the fact that this is the first time a species has been considered for listing specifically because its habitat is threatened by global warming.
The Bush administration was supposed to make a decision on the status of the polar bear by January 9 of this year. Three environmental organizations, the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the government to force a decision.
Early this month, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California agreed with the conservation groups, ordering that the Department of the Interior announce a decision by May 15.
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Some environmentalists say the delay of a decision was to make it easier for oil companies to finalize $2.7 billion in offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea. That area between Alaska and Siberia is home to about 20 percent of the planet's polar bears.
"Had the polar bear been listed prior to January 9, as the law required, that lease sale could not have moved forward without some substantial additional review of the impacts to polar bears," said Kassie Siegel, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity.
At a Congressional hearing in January, the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service said those leases do not pose a risk to the bears.
"We don't have any substantial records that the oil and gas exploration have created an issue for the polar bear," said Dale Hall, director of Fish and Wildlife.
USGS scientist Steve Amstrup, who has studied polar bears for nearly 30 years, explained why the sea ice can mean life or death for polar bears. Amstrup spoke to CNN in March.
"A lot of people don't understand how polar bears live. They are not terrestrial animals. They spend very little time on land. They spend most of their time on sea ice, this cap of ice that is floating around on the surface of the Arctic Ocean. It is on that surface of the ice that they have adapted ways of catching seals that are their principal prey.
These seals are kind of like giant "fat pills" that have allowed polar bears to become the largest of the bears and to expand across the range of the sea ice. As that sea ice declines, you can think of it as a decline in the carrying capacity of polar bears, just as if you took a field that supported a certain number of cattle for example, and plowed up half the field and there was no longer grass there, you've lost the carrying capacity for half the animals that live out there," said Amstrup.
Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund spoke before the Kempthorne news conference, saying a positive decision on the bear's status could mean the United States could re-gain a leadership role in global species conservation.
"The polar bear is a compelling symbol. What is happening to the polar bear is happening to the Arctic. And it's happening more rapidly and more severely than anywhere in the world. It is a signal we are in deep trouble, that we need to take action on climate change", said Margaret Williams, Managing Director, Kamchatka-Bering Sea Ecoregion for World Wildlife Fund U.S.
Polar Bears Now Threatened Species
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