Oil exploration proposed in critical habitat for rare whale
Published Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!
ANCHORAGE — The Bush administration took a first step Tuesday toward allowing oil and gas leasing in an area of the Bering Sea considered important for the recovery of the world’s most endangered whale.
The administration proposal opening up 5.6 million acres off the Alaska coast to energy development was published in the Federal Register by the Minerals Management Service. The area, which had been protected from drilling since 1990, is north of the Aleutian Islands near Bristol Bay. The administration lifted the ban last year.
Under the leasing proposal, the North Aleutian Basin lease sale would be held in 2011. Exploratory drilling could begin the next year.
The publication of the proposal marks the start of the process, which will involve a public comment period and months of gathering information for an environmental impact statement, said Robin Cacy, an MMS spokeswoman in Anchorage.
“No decisions have been made on the sale. This is just the beginning,” she said.
The issuing of the proposal came on the same day that the National Marine Fisheries Service published its final decision reaffirming portions of the lease area as critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued to get the federal government in 2006 to designate critical habitat for the whales, is suing to shut down the Bering Sea lease sale.
The problem, according to the center, is that more than half of the proposed lease sale area is designated critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale — long believed to be on certain road to extinction. That gloomy scenario has brightened somewhat with a surprising number of right whales found recently in the Bering Sea.
Center spokesman Brendan Cummings said allowing drilling in the critical habitat is a bad omen for other endangered animals.
“It would completely eviscerate the protections that critical habitat are supposed to provide,” he said. “If there is actual development — tanker traffic, drilling noise, industrial disturbance — it will turn an area that is relatively pristine into an industrial zone. The whale’s grip on existence is so tenuous as it is that this will likely push it over the edge toward extinction.”
Whale experts say there could be fewer than 50 North Pacific right whales in the eastern North Pacific and perhaps a couple hundred on the Russian side. The large whales once ranged from California to Alaska and across the North Pacific to Russia and Japan. However, commercial whaling almost wiped them out.
Cacy said MMS is collaborating with the National Marine Fisheries Service on a $5 million study of the whales. Their distribution, numbers and habitat will be studied over a more than three-year period — enough time the agency says to collect environmental data on animals that could be affected by offshore drilling.
“We are going to be striving to get the best scientific information available,” she said.
Bristol Bay commercial fishermen also oppose drilling there.
The bay, which was put off limits to drilling after the devastating 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, has huge annual catches of salmon, cod, king crab and herring.
———
On the Net:
http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2007/press0626.htm
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
>Bush administration proposes drilling in critical habitat for endangered whale.
Jeez, you know we're at Peak Oil when they start drilling for whales. Hey, at least whale oil is 'sustainable', well, at least for a while....
Mr. President, quit the political grandstanding and use some common sense. America needs energy independence and the use of our natural resources, be they renewable or non-renewable. What we don't need is the unending litigation and confrontation.
The EXXON Valdez oil spill disaster and subsequent lengthy court resolution has so alienated the fishing industry, that any proposal to transport or drill oil in vital fishing grounds is a non-starter.
The fishing industry needs oil to catch and transport their harvest. But they would NOT have a need fuel, if there were NO fish to harvest.
We very much need to save these whales at all cost. Their extinction is not an option. There is no telling what they could be useful for in the future. Good example, the horse...... carefully observing them does not reveal they make great glue. Horse experts agree they are unable tell which in a herd are the really sticky ones.
But in all his term would he push to open up ANWR?!!!!!
Or any of our OTHER PROSPECTIVE fields?! What an Ass.
The Exxon Valdez was a bad enough disaster for our coast line. And now wanna be dictator Bush wants to put our whale's in danger? How much more money does he think he needs. Him and his oil companies have taken enough from us.
BTW Those of the ecological saving ilk: I really want to thank you for your concerns. But ANWR never did pose as serious a threat as offshore drilling. Esp. when one considers all alternatives. We're going to need the oil and we will get it eventually. Much is more dependent on HOW a thing is done as opposed to what is done. Yes, I personally would far rather we were on renewable and earth friendly alternatives...I trully believe we all would but TODAY those choices have yet to pose practicality. So Far....keep thinking. I hear those solar panels are getting better and better though. Still the oil will be needed.
All choices CAN be done right.
This is nuts. We can't even drill for onshore reserves near existing infrastructure in this state and now Bush is naive enough to believe we can drill in the Bering Sea? Somebody needs to wake him up to the reality of "Big Eco" here in Arctic Bananaland.
What depraved, ludicrous times we're living in.
TR: I wouldn't fault him for proposing it. He's got to try something. The country is being painted into a corner by what you refer to as "Big Eco." Demand for energy is skyrocketing worldwide, but we can't have nuclear, can't build more coal plants, can't drill ANWR and promising offshore prospects. I guess we're supposed to fuel our economy with pixie dust, or something.
OF COURSE NOT... PIXIES ARE OR MAY BE ENDANGERED!!!! Obviously if we are going to fuel our economy on Pixie Dust we will need to do a solid Environmental Impact Statement. I personally, nor any biologist I have met has ever seen a Pixie, therefore they must be imperiled! (Tongue in cheek obviously)
Prior to any actual production, there will be an EIS done, and impact assessed. The real question is whether any activity in this area will actually have a real impact. Or it may may have the same kind of impact to the whales as the pipeline has on the caribou. Great place to rest, feed, 'converse' with the thousands of other caribou at home in the vicinity. But then again.. good heavens.. we could endanger the herd of wild Porcupines. (written for all those misconstrued)
This is a proposal for a new energy source, and the country (as a majority) has displayed the desire for such.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.