Alaska's Oceans In Peril
The Minerals Management Service's (MMS), a branch of the Interior Department, finalized their Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) 5-year Plan for Oil and Gas Leasing 2007-2012 in April, 2007. The OCS 5-Year Plan is the nation's overarching plan for off-shore oil and gas development in the country. Four lease areas are in Alaska and contain over 84 million acreas of pristine and biologically critical ocean ecosystem.
The Alaska ocean regions included in the OCS 5-Year Plan - The North Aleutian Basin (Bristol Bay), Arctic Ocean (Chukchi & Beaufort Seas) and Lower Cook Inlet - are some of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, providing important economies and ways of life to people, as well as critical habitats to a diversity of wildlife.
Tragically, our nation’s leadership is choosing to sacrifice Alaska’s vast marine resources for an energy source the country must eventually wean itself off of. According to a recently published report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is a real force that must be addressed if we are to prevent vast detrimental impacts. Alaska is already reeling from global climate change: including loss of sea ice, melting permafrost and weather and ocean changes. America should invest in renewable and alternative energies not sacrifice Alaska's extraordinary oceans.
Alaska Conservation Groups Working on Offshore Oil and Gas Issues
Timeline of MMS Five Year Plan
The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas
In the remote reaches of Alaska lies one of the world’s most extraordinary environments - America’s Arctic Seas. Pristine seas and a spectacular landscape create an irreplaceable natural realm celebrated for its unique wildlife and the culture of the Inupiat people.
Today, speculative and hazardous oil development proposals threaten America’s Arctic. The MMS is rushing into seismic exploration, lease sales and test wells this spring and summer 2007!
Click here for printable fact sheet
The Global Importance of America’s Arctic Seas
 The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas make up America’s Arctic Ocean, with the Northern Bering Sea inextricably linked - this region is one of the most abundant marine ecosystems in the world due to a unique combination of natural elements.
Currently, the Chukchi Sea is an unspooiled, intact ecosystem; the vast majority of the Beaufort also remains pristine. At the same time, these seas are mysterious places where significantly more scientific study is needed. In addition, climate change is having alarming impacts on this region and needs research to understand and manage.
- The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are distinctly different from lower latitude seas and make direct and important contributions to global ocean and climate systems.
- The Chukchi Sea is the most productive high latitude ocean system in the Arctic. Its shallow and highly productive sea floor (benthic system) allows bottom-dwelling prey (crustacea, mollusks, etc) to flourish, creating a buffet for wildlife specialized to feed off the ocean floor, such as walrus, seals, gray whales, and deep-diving sea birds. The Beaufort Sea is a main artery for bowhead and beluga migrations, and critical for polar bear. Both seas provide critical habitat for Arctic wildlife.
- Critical estuaries, bays, inlets and river outlets line the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea coasts and provide breeding grounds for millions of birds, including endangered and threatened species as the spectacled and Stellar’s eider, and Kittlitz’s murrelet. Polar cod, capelin and other fish spawn in these shallow waters and are primary food sources for the Arctic’s wildlife.
- The role of ice is a distinctive and critical feature to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The ice-edge produces a rich profusion of phytoplankton and sea-algae. Icy temperatures inhibit the large fish (such as salmon and pollock) that would eat this prey, allowing it to sink to the seafloor to feed creatures there. The importance and role of ice cannot be underestimated. Much of the Arctic’s wildlife and its people are integrally linked to and reliant on the ice-edge.
 
- National Interest Areas: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska Maritime and Selawik National Wildlife Refuges; Bering Land Bridge National Preserve; Cape Krusenstern National Monument; Ludyard Bay and Teshekpuk Lake.
The Arctic’s Notable Wildlife
- Endangered bowhead migrate throughout both seas, as do beluga whales. Gray whales feed in the Chukchi, as do increasing numbers of endangered humpback and fin whales.
- Bearded, ribbon, ringed and spotted seals range throughout both seas; ringed and bearded seals live only in the Arctic and are ice-dependent.
- Polar bear and Arctic fox - an apex predator completely dependant on ice and seals, Polar bear range through both seas; previously denning mainly on ice, a significant number now den on land, the Arctic Refuge coastal plain is a primary denning site. The Arctic fox follows the polar bear and lives most of its life on ice.
- Walrus feast on world-record clam beds off Point Hope in the Chukchi Sea and migrate from the northern Bering Sea to Pt. Barrow.
- Millions of birds breed and feed in the Chukchi and Beaufort and on-land in critical areas, several are endangered and threatened: spectacled and Stellar’s eider, Kittlitz’s murrelet.
- In addition to capelin and polar cod, there are many endemic and endangered Arctic fishes.
 
MMS's proposed plan would open up important migration routes for endangered bowhead whales and beluga whales that are not included in the existing oil and gas program. These Arctic waters also provide important habitat for polar bears, walrus, and three species of seals. Oil and gas development poses serious threats to this environment. For example, the industry has failed at every opportunity to show that it could actually clean up spilled oil in these icy waters. Spilled oil threatens marine wildlife and the coastline of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.
There need to be adequate studies on the effects that oil and gas activities, including powerful seismic air gun surveys, have on whales, fish, and other marine wildlife in America's Arctic waters before leasing should be considered. Many stakeholders recommend that no other lease sales should be scheduled and that further exploration or development should not be allowed until industry demonstrates that it can clean up spilled oil in icy conditions.
Proposed Shell Oil wells in the Beaufort Sea off the Arctic Refuge
Bristol Bay- North Aleutian Basin
MMS is pushing to open Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea (North Aleutian Basin) to oil and gas development, the only area in Alaska that has been closed to oil and gas leasing for the last 15 years. Bristol Bay is home to large populations of marine mammals, seabirds, crab, and fish, including the world's largest sockeye salmon run. It also provides habitat for the endangered Steller sea lion, threatened northern sea otters, and the critically endangered North Pacific right whale, of which there may be only 100 left.
Because of the importance of this environmentally sensitive area and deep concerns expressed by Alaska Native villages, local governments, the State of Alaska, the fishing industry and the conservation community, Congress spent $95 million buying back previous oil and gas leases just 10 years ago. Although the area currently remains closed under a Presidential moratorium, MMS has included Bristol Bay in its five-year plan. Many stakeholders recommend the removal of Bristol Bay from the five-year plan.
Recent New York Times Editorial [12.6.06]
Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) Press Release on Bristol Bay
Additional background (Friends for Bristol Bay)
Update on Bristol Bay [August 2006]
Lower Cook Inlet
The rich and productive waters of lower Cook Inlet support thriving commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries, primarily for salmon and halibut. Offshore drilling spills and waste discharges contain toxic contaminants that can impact Cook Inlet fish and shellfish quality, destroying generations-old lifestyles and making it impossible to market wild Alaskan salmon from unpolluted waters.
Lower Cook Inlet contains one of the highest concentrations of sensitive and scenic public lands in the nation, including Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks, the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, and the world-famous McNeil River Bear Sanctuary. These and other protected areas can be impacted by accidents from offshore drilling operations and associated pipeline and tanker transportation of produced materials.
Cook Inlet's beluga whales - which are impacted by offshore drilling activities - are an isolated population of far fewer whales than were present historically. The National Marine Fisheries Service considers Cook Inlet belugas to be a "depleted" population, whose numbers have not grown since NMFS took that action (NMFS counted less than 300 Cook Inlet belugas in 2005).
Federal Government Cancels Lower Cook Inlet Oil and Gas Sale
Status: Lease Sale 199 for May 2007 canceled due to lack of industry interest. Upcoming lease sales will be held if industry shows interest, so it is not a closed door.
RECENT NEWS:
Offshore lease impact is understated [10.10.06 ADN]
Draft environmental impact statement for Chukchi leasing-60 day public comment opportunity
Background on recent National OCS Five Year Plan
Past Five Year OCS plan Action Alerts and Public Comments:
Alaska Oceans Program Action Alert [11.13.06]
Pacific Environment Action Alert [11.09.06]
Alaska Oceans Program Public Comments [MMS public meeting 9.29.06]
Alaska Center for the Environment Public Comments [MMS public meeting 9.29.06]
Background about the March 29, 2006 Forum
March 29, 2006 Forum Agenda
Press Release (3.29.06)
Native Representatives and Local Experts Oppose Drilling Offshore Alaska
Information on Offshore Oil and Gas Development
Ecological Impacts
Effects of Offshore Seismic Surveys on Marine Mammals, Fish, and Fishing
Effects of Oil, Produced Water, and Drilling Discharges on Aquatic Life
*Compiled by Kelly Harrell a UBC graduate student focusing her thesis on the OCS 5-year Plan
Links
Lessons Learned Internationally
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