BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. federal officials said Wednesday they will consider listing four species of ice seals in Alaska's Arctic as endangered because of a vanishing habitat as sea ice recedes.

    The National Marine Fisheries Service accepted a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity seeking protection for ribbon seals, which inhabit the Bering Sea.

    "Their petition states that global warming threatens ribbon seals with extinction because of the rapid melt of sea ice habitat," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement. NOAA oversees the fisheries service.

    "The agency decided the petition provided enough information to indicate that action may be warranted under the law," NOAA added.

    Acting Administrator Doug Mecum said the agency also will review bearded, spotted and ringed seals for possible listing.

    This month the center and two other conservation groups sued the government for missing a deadline on a decision to list polar bears as threatened.

    NOAA said the agency's finding "was based, in part, on predicted changes in ribbon seals’sea ice habitat as a result of global climate change, the high allowable seal harvest set by the Russian federation in recent years, the potential impacts of oil and gas development and production in both the United States and Russia and the potential impacts of commercial fisheries and climate change on ribbon seal prey distribution and abundance."

    (Agencies)