Fish and Wildlife Service finalizes 5-year polar bear and walrus take rules for Beaufort Sea oil and gas

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has finalized regulations that allow the incidental, unintentional take of small numbers of polar bears and Pacific walruses during year-round oil and gas work in the Beaufort Sea and along the adjacent northern coast of Alaska. The rule takes effect October 19, 2026 and runs through October 19, 2031.

The agency acted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in response to a request from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA). The rule covers exploration, development, production and transportation activities in Alaska waters and on the Outer Continental Shelf. Lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are not included.

What the rule does

The regulations succeed the previous five-year Beaufort Sea incidental take rules, which ran through August 5, 2026 and covered similar types of activity. They set out permissible methods of taking, mitigation measures meant to hold impacts on the animals, their habitat and subsistence use to the least practicable level, and monitoring and reporting requirements. FWS says it will issue letters of authorization, on request, for specific activities under the rule.

The agency's findings

FWS based the rule on findings that the total takings will affect small numbers of animals and have a negligible impact on the species or stocks. It also found no unmitigable adverse impact on the availability of polar bears and walruses for subsistence use by Alaska Natives. The agency drew on monitoring data from encounters between the animals and industry, research on both species, oil spill risk assessments, reports from Alaska Native subsistence hunters, and predictive modeling. FWS also prepared an environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact.

Why it took effect so quickly

FWS used the Administrative Procedure Act's good-cause provision to make the rule effective less than 30 days after publication. The agency said immediate effect lets the requester put mitigation, monitoring and reporting measures in place and gives the applicant coverage under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The docket is FWS-R7-ES-2026-0694 on regulations.gov, where the rule and the final environmental assessment are posted.