Potential Impacts of Oil Development
Many concerns exist regarding the potential impact of offshore oil and gas development on the fisheries and wildlife of Bristol Bay. While it is impossible to predict with certainty what impacts oil development in the region will have, much research has been done on the impacts of similar activities, generally on a small scale, in other regions. Prior to the 1986 Minerals Management Service earlier lease sale in the North Aleutian Basin (leases which ended up never being used), a final environmental impact statement was written that considered what impacts oil and gas development could have on the region’s wildlife (MMS, 1985). Furthermore, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, which resulted in the release of 42 million liters of crude oil into Prince William Sound, contaminating 1990 kilometers of shoreline (Peterson, 2003) has provided a wealth of research into the impacts of a large-scale oil spill on an Alaskan ecosystem. Many of the species impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill are also present in Bristol Bay. Some of the major avenues of impact that offshore oil and gas development can have are: oil spills, underwater noise from seismic surveys, above ground transportation and associated noise and the construction of drilling platforms. The effects of these factors on fish, the fishing industry, birds and marine mammals are explored in the sections to the right. |
Effects on Marine Invertebrates |