Halt Coastal Alaska Oil and Gas Prospecting:
Public Comments Filed by Friends of Animals for Polar Bears and Pacific Walruses
Washington, DC — Friends of Animals, joined in the effort by WildEarth Guardians, submitted public comments this week challenging a regulation proposed by the Interior Department’s Fish & Wildlife Service that would permit oil companies to harm marine mammals near Alaska’s coast.
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association petitioned to allow industrial operations that would disturb polar bears and Pacific walruses in a five-year course of commercial prospecting, starting 11 June 2013. In response, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule in January (Docket ID: FWS-R7-ES-2012-0043), authorizing the “nonlethal, incidental, unintentional take” of the mammals during industry activities in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, and adjacent western coast of Alaska.
“The Service claims a ‘small number’ of animals will be affected,” said Lee Hall, Vice President of Legal Affairs for Friends of Animals.
“Yet the effects of activities enabled through the proposal, including icebreaking, exploratory boring and drilling, seismic surveys, platform and pipeline surveys—and even the deploying of marine mammal observation vessels to mitigate the disturbances—are serious.”
The Marine Mammal Protection Act bars hunting, killing, capture, or harassment of any marine mammal, and the import, export, and sale of these animals, or parts or products derived from them, within the United States. But the amended Act currently allows for the harming of marine mammals—even individuals of endangered or threatened species—if the Fish and Wildlife Service determines the harm has a “negligible impact.”
As an expanding permit system allows the deliberate or foreseeable takes of marine mammals for various industries, the primary purpose of the law gets lost in the shuffle.
“It’s time federal officials stopped using the Marine Mammal Protection Act to exploit marine mammals,” said Peter Wallerstein, who leads Friends of Animals’ Marine Animal Rescue project.
The government acknowledges the possibility of unpredictable effects of spills and waste, in addition to an allowance for various forms of harassment: disrupted migration, breathing, nursing or sheltering.
“Harms to ice-dependent mammals already in peril are potentially far more serious than the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the Service have outlined,” said Hall.
Polar bears are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Said Jay Tutchton, General Counsel for WildEarth Guardians, “Development-based prospecting may further shrink Arctic ice habitat in an area already significantly impacted by global warming.”
Thus, the advocacy groups asked the government to “consider the cumulative impacts of prospecting, including icebreaking, as a climate hazard—as well as a hazard to Pacific walruses and polar bears,” pointing to the recent NASA-sponsored discovery of a large algal bloom below the ice of the Chukchi Sea. Such a bloom was previously thought impossible. It completely changes what we know about Arctic ecosystems, and it’s a stark sign of climate change in the far north.
“In a time of melting polar ice caps, icebreaking should incur a moratorium, not government assistance,” the groups’ public comment asserts.
“Polar bears and Pacific walruses cannot afford the risk this rule takes with their only habitat,” said Hall.
Post your comment
Comment Guidelines: We welcome your expressions of opinion on this subject. Please avoid false commentary about individuals or groups. Facts must be verified by the person posting. Off-topic comments, and comments inappropriate for a readership of all ages, may be deleted. E-mail addresses will never be published. Only comments with valid e-mail address will be published.
4 Comments
On February 4, 2013, Dorothy L Davies wrote:
Please do not allow the following petitiion:
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association petitioned to allow industrial operations that would disturb polar bears and Pacific walruses in a five-year course of commercial prospecting, starting 11 June 2013. In response, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule in January (Docket ID: FWS-R7-ES-2012-0043), authorizing the “nonlethal, incidental, unintentional take” of the mammals during industry activities in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, and adjacent western coast of Alaska.
P
On February 4, 2013, THERESA GARGIULO wrote:
Is murder for the “advancement” of mankind now defined as “negligible impact” ?…abide by the Marine Mammal Protection Act WITHOUT amendments for human financial profit at the expense of innocent beautiful creatures that are deemed “in the way”…STOP NOW !!!
On February 4, 2013, susan rudnicki wrote:
The proposed operations in Alaska, which have been considered under “amendments” to the Marine Mammal Protection Act are NOT “negligible”. They are FUNDAMENTAL ABUSES of the meaning and intent of the law meant to protect the lifeforms at risk from our human-centric and short-sighted concerns. No one reading this euphemistic language is fooled by the multi-national corporate favoritism exhibited by this egregious flouting of a Congressional act. I am a citizen and US taxpayer, and I do not condone the watering down of our longterm protections for sake of a few years of fossil fuel extraction. We are already living on borrowed time as the Earth’s climate heats irreversibly beyond moderation. The foremost climate scientists and atmospheric scientists are pleading with the politicians and corporate titans and clueless public to become active in ramping DOWN fossil fuel consumption and extraction. The ONLY reason there is abuse of the Marine Mammal Protection Act is for profit in the short term. I protest this thinking and poor planning.
On February 7, 2013, Beverly Alba wrote:
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association petitioned to allow industrial operations that would disturb polar bears and Pacific walruses in a five-year course of commercial prospecting, starting 11 June 2013. In response, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule in January (Docket ID: FWS-R7-ES-2012-0043), authorizing the “nonlethal, incidental, unintentional take” of the mammals during industry activities in the Chukchi and Bering Seas, and adjacent western coast of Alaska.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act bars hunting, killing, capture, or harassment of any marine mammal, and the import, export, and sale of these animals, or parts or products derived from them, within the United States. But the amended Act currently allows for the harming of marine mammals—even individuals of endangered or threatened species—if the Fish and Wildlife Service determines the harm has a “negligible impact.”
I do not want any marine mammals harmed nor the marine environment disturbed or impacted negatively. The proposed rule FWS-R7-ES-2012-0043 should NOT be implemented.