Protecting Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay is a culturally precious and ecologically rich area of fisheries and other marine resources in the southeast Bering Sea. This region hosts the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon run and provides more than 40 percent of the total U.S. fish catch. It is also home to the endangered North Pacific right whale, walrus, Steller sea lion and other marine mammals as well as hundreds of fish species and one of the planet’s greatest concentrations of seabirds. Like the rest of the north, its ecosystem is under pressure from climate change and ocean acidification.

Bristol Bay is home to the world's largest wild sockeye salmon run

© Alaska Marine Conservation Council

Offshore oil and gas activities have the potential to exacerbate this stress. After the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Congress spent over $100 million in taxpayers’ dollars to buy back oil leases. Congress also enacted a drilling moratorium in Bristol Bay that was upheld for almost two decades by Republican and Democratic administrations. That changed when the Bush administration included one-fifth, or about 5.6 million acres, of Bristol Bay in its 2007-2012 national offshore oil and gas leasing plan. A federal court challenge of that plan found that the Department of Interior had failed to properly assess the environmental impact of oil drilling and ordered the government to revise it. Those impacts include noise from seismic testing, air pollution from ships and the ever-present risk of oil spills. The 2007-2012 plan is now under review by the Obama administration.

The federal government’s Minerals Management Service has estimated that the net economic value of Bristol Bay’s oil and gas resources is estimated to be a total of $7.7 billion over the entire 25 to 40 year lifespan of the project. By contrast, the well-managed, sustainable fisheries in Bristol Bay and the southeast Bering Sea are valued at an estimated $2 billion annually.

Significant risks to America’s fisheries posed by oil drilling in Bristol Bay include: 

• The proposed oil development would occur in the heart of America’s richest fishing grounds and overlaps with important habitat for crab, salmon, herring, Pollock, cod and flatfish.
• Offshore construction of platforms and pipelines would displace commercial fishing activities. Once in place, pipelines would pose entanglement hazards for fishing gear.
• The economic benefit of renewable fisheries resources far outweighs the short-term economic value of offshore oil and gas development. 

Sockeye salmon drying at Lake Clark

© D. Young, NPS

Significant risks to Bristol Bay’s marine environment posed by oil drilling include: 

• The Department of the Interior’s Environmental Impact Statement for its 2007-2012 offshore oil and gas leasing plan predicts one large oil spill and numerous smaller spills if development proceeds in the North Aleutian Planning Area, or Bristol Bay.  A large spill could contaminate Bristol Bay’s shoreline sediments, inter-tidal waters and essential fish habitats for many years.
• The impact of a large oil spill in Bristol Bay would extend well beyond the 5.6 million acres included in the proposed lease sale. It would likely have adverse impacts on salmon that spawn upstream in tributaries of the bay. 
• Spill response capability is severely limited in broken ice.  Bristol Bay historically is covered in ice for at least six months of the year.
• Bristol Bay is home to a diverse number of marine mammal species, including Pacific walrus, northern sea otter, and the North Pacific right whale that is listed by the U.S. as an endangered species.
• Oil development adds stress to an ecosystem that is already under pressure due to climate change and ocean acidification. Scientists estimate that pteropods, small mollusks at the bottom of the food chain eaten by salmon and other species, will be one of the first species impacted by increasing ocean acidity. Fish distributions are also changing as some species move north because of warmer waters. Such changes are likely to affect the entire marine food web.

Significant risks to subsistence and local communities posed by oil drilling include:

• Subsistence hunting and fishing, the primary food sources for Native communities, provide the foundation for rich cultural traditions and connections to a unique ancestry.
• Salmon is the “life-blood” of Native communities in Bristol Bay. Oil spills or other toxic discharges from drilling could devastate salmon runs and the local economies they support for many years.
• Bristol Bay is home to 31 Alaska tribes that depend on the fish and wildlife of the area to maintain their culture and subsistence way of life.  A majority of these tribes are opposed to the 2007-2012 offshore oil and gas leasing plan. These tribes must have a voice in developing an Alaska-based solution for managing Bristol Bay for future generations.

Oceans North U.S. recommends that Bristol Bay and its valuable, renewable resources should be permanently protected and not put at risk from oil development. Oil leasing in Bristol Bay should be deferred by the Secretary of the Interior or withdrawn by Presidential order. The best way to achieve permanent protection is through an Alaska-based solution involving stakeholders and communities in the affected area.