Oil Trumps Whales

Northern right whale with calf, Eubalaena glacialis. Photo: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

The Bush administration wants to open 5.6 million acres in the Bering Sea off Alaska to oil and gas leasing, including an area north of the Aleutian Islands near Bristol Bay designated critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale. The proposal was published in Tuesday's Federal Register by the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), as reported by the Center for Biological Diversity. North Pacific right whales once ranged from California to Alaska and across the North Pacific to Russia and Japan. They were decimated by commercial whaling and remain the most endangered large whale in the world. Fewer than 50 individuals remain in the Bering Sea population.

"Drilling in Bristol Bay would be drilling through the heart of the most important habitat of the most endangered whale on the planet," said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity. “If the North Pacific right whale is to have any chance of survival, we must protect its critical habitat, not auction it off to oil companies." The CBD reports the leasing proposal was made the same day the National Marine Fisheries Service, another federal agency, published a final rule in the Federal Register naming portions of the lease area as critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale. Ooops.

"Unfortunately, for the right whale it’s one step forward, two steps back," said Cummings. "One branch of the federal government is acting to protect the critical habitat of the North Pacific right whale, while another branch is simultaneously proposing to destroy it." It's also reminiscent of the recent MMS decision to lease important polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea at the same time the US Fish and Wildlife Service was considering offering the bears protection under the Endangered Species Act. Both agencies are part of Dirk Kempthorne's Department of the Oilterior, uhm, Interior.

The latest leasing proposal would sell the North Aleutian Basin lease in 2011… One more reason we need the Right President to protect the Right Whales. Not to mention the right one to wean us off the oil economy rather than enable it.

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal Award. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.

Comments

I do not think this will pass. It would be shear folly to do this, and I doubt people will allow this.

Posted by: kelly on 04/13/08 at 6:48 PM Respond

since when did people vote on these kind of things to happen. If any progess on this is made, it will be through brave individuals and direct action. We cannot allow large corporate intrests to determine the world we live in.

Posted by: Emanuel Goldstien on 04/17/08 at 9:05 AM Respond

When will this guy Bush
stop? It seems that any animal on this earth is fair game to him. Bears in Virginia due to mountaintop destruction for mining, polar bears, wolves, birds and now whales, not to mention bison. What a pathetic figure.

Posted by: Marilyn Glasgow on 04/19/08 at 10:02 AM Respond

When will he stop? Never. Don't you see? He doesn't care about the animals or the planet. He doesn't even care about you and me. The only thing he cares about is money, money, money. Dollars, dollars, dollars. That is making himself and his friends as rich as possible. And as the president of the United States he believes that he may do whatever, whenever he pleases; the rest of us be damned.

Posted by: David on 04/21/08 at 6:24 AM Respond

Drilling for oil can be done without hurting the eco system.

Posted by: Eric on 06/06/08 at 11:11 AM Respond

We need the oil. Oil is more important to people than whales. We need to become energy self sufficient so we will not depend upon the muslims. As a Jew, I believe that we need to free ourselves of the hold of middle east oil so we will not have to give into the Arabs on Israel. The existence of the Jewish people is at stake.

Posted by: Sarah on 06/06/08 at 12:36 PM Respond

Gee Sarah, I'm sorry you feel that way. Whales are a 'top predator' for the most part, in the ocean. As such, they are also the 'canary in the mine' so to speak. When the whales are gone, so will most of the other fish and wildlife be gone as well. As a Jew, I don't suppose you eat shellfish or anything like that, but all those little critters at the bottom and in the middle of the ocean are important to the ecosystem of this planet.

Much as we humans would like to pretend we are not part of the ecosystem, we are as well. When we drive large predator species like whales (and polar bears and wolves) to extinction, we drive ourselves ever closer to the edge of the cliff as well.

If you truly want to make Israel safe, you need to convince your AIPAC friends to negotiate in good faith with the Palestinians, make sure they have a chunk of continguous land to call their own, plenty of water to drink and raise crops, and figure out a way to share Jerusalem.

Then Israel will be safe. Israel's safety has nothing to do with oil at this point - but everything to do with the Palestinian issue.

As far as the oil - we need to stop looking for more oil (a proposition that gets less and less econoically feasible by the hour) and start thinking about how to live in this world without it. Because it IS going to run out. Sooner rather than later. More drilling will only hasten the inevitable.

Posted by: lokywoky bitter hussein on 06/06/08 at 8:29 PM Respond

Sarah, you are a racist. No more wars for Israel, and no more American blood for Israel. Sarah is a good example of a one issue person. Let us move beyond one issue into many issues. Humans are a many faceted creature. We should all be able to agree on the merits of saving the earth. Without the earth, nobody exists. Get on board the bus Sarah.

Posted by: Ms. Green on 06/07/08 at 7:35 AM Respond