Trump Greenlights Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but Will Oil Companies Show Up?
24 August
Energy
By Scott L. Montgomery
The Trump administration has announced that it is opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development – the latest twist in a decades-long battle over the fate of this remote area. Its timing is truly terrible.
<p>Low oil prices, a pandemic-driven recession and looming elections add up to highly unfavorable conditions for launching expensive drilling operations. In the longer term, the climate crisis and an ongoing shift to a lower-carbon economy raise big questions about future oil demand.</p><p>I've <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dCRySjIAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">researched the U.S. energy industry</a> for more than 20 years. As I see it, conservative Republicans have backed oil and gas production in ANWR since the 1980s for two overriding reasons. First, to increase domestic oil production and reduce dependence on "foreign oil," a euphemism for imports from OPEC countries. This argument now is largely dead, thanks to the <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fracking-revolution-thats-made-the-us-the-top-global-oil-producer-is-boosting-the-economy-and-curbing-emissions-too-2019-03-22/" target="_blank">fracking revolution</a>, which has greatly expanded U.S. oil and gas production.</p><p>The other motive for drilling in ANWR, I believe, is to score a major, precedent-setting victory over government policies that prioritize conservation over energy production and environmental advocacy groups that have fought for years to protect ANWR as "<a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/article/why-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_blank">one of the finest examples of wilderness left on Earth</a>." Capturing ANWR and transforming it into a locus of fossil fuel extraction would be a massive physical and symbolic triumph for politicians who believe that resource extraction is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dems-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-yet-another-issue-public-lands-65772" target="_blank">highest use of public lands</a>.</p><p>President Trump seems to understand this, based on his recent comment that "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/climate/alaska-oil-drilling-anwr.html" target="_blank">ANWR is a big deal that Ronald Reagan couldn't get done and nobody could get done</a>." But global, national and oil industry circumstances are overwhelmingly arrayed against Trump getting it done.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="acfdbc74ce6214af4b64f1f77bd82b45"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bTdOrHxIto4?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Years of Debate
<p>ANWR is inarguably an ecological treasure. With 45 species of mammals and over 200 species of birds from six continents, the refuge <a href="https://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/earth/documentaries/reading-the-rocks-the-search-for-oil-in-anwr/essay-northern-alaska-rich-in-wildlife-and-oil/" target="_blank">is more biodiverse</a> than almost any area in the Arctic.</p><p>This is especially true of the 1002 <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/wildlife_habitat.html" target="_blank">coastal plain portion</a>, which has the largest number of polar bear dens in Alaska. It also supports <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientist-at-work-tracking-muskoxen-in-a-warming-arctic-70378" target="_blank">muskoxen</a>, Arctic wolves, foxes, hares, migrating waterfowl and Porcupine caribou, which calve there. Most of ANWR is designated as wilderness, which puts it off-limits for development. But this <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33872.pdf" target="_blank">does not include the 1002 Area</a>, which was recognized as a promising area for energy development when the refuge was created in 1980 and left that way after a 1987 study confirmed its potential.</p><p>Climate change is causing <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-degrees-in-siberia-5-ways-the-extreme-arctic-heat-wave-follows-a-disturbing-pattern-141442" target="_blank">especially rapid warming in the Arctic</a>, with probable negative effects for many of these species. Environmental advocates argue that fossil fuel production in ANWR will <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/protect-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_blank">add to this process</a>, damaging habitat and impacting the <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/07/02/in-arctic-village-gwichin-leaders-say-the-fight-to-stop-drilling-in-the-arctic-refuge-isnt-over/" target="_blank">Indigenous people who rely on the wildlife</a> for subsistence. But the situation is complex: There are also <a href="https://www.ktoo.org/2019/07/02/in-the-alaska-village-where-anwr-is-the-backyard-many-see-drilling-as-an-opportunity/" target="_blank">Indigenous groups who support ANWR development</a> for the jobs and income it would bring.</p><p>Energy companies' interest in ANWR, meanwhile, has risen and fallen over time. The discovery of oil at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay_Oil_Field" target="_blank">Prudhoe Bay</a> in 1968, followed by <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/oil-dependence-and-us-foreign-policy" target="_blank">two oil shocks in the 1970s</a>, sparked support for exploration and production in the region. But this enthusiasm faded in the late 1980s and '90s in the face of fierce political and legal opposition and years of low oil prices.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NjgzMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzAxNzY4MH0.vWNpbGQIFsOi5KclugxDJn1zOdFvnMZjregD-L2-R1k/img.png?width=980" id="c43dd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21bad02c37ee46a4c84f7ef33adabd67" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A majority of Americas of all political leanings believe the U.S. should develop alternative energy sources rather than expanding production of oil, coal and natural gas. Pew Research Center, CC BY-ND
<p>Scientists performed two major assessments of oil reserves in the 1002 Area in <a href="http://dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/usgs/b/text/b1778.pdf" target="_blank">1987</a> and <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/" target="_blank">1998</a>. The latter study concluded that ANWR contained up to 11 billion barrels of oil that could be profitably recovered if prices were consistently high. But when prices rose between 2010 and late 2014, companies chose to focus instead on areas to the west of the refuge, where new discoveries had been made.</p><p>In the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1/BILLS-115hr1enr.pdf" target="_blank">Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017</a>, a Republican-controlled Congress directed the Trump administration to open the 1002 Area to leasing. The bill required one lease sale within four years, and at least two sales within a decade. But as the Interior Department tried to comply, it was hampered by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/ryan-zinke-interior-secretary.html" target="_blank">political controversies</a> and environmental assessment requirements.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-bernhardt-signs-decision-implement-coastal-plain-oil-and-gas-leasing-program" target="_blank">new Record of Decision</a>, released on Aug. 17, 2020, determines where and how leasing will occur. It represents the Trump administration's last chance to bring forward a well-designed leasing plan, and is certain <a href="https://www.arctictoday.com/with-arctic-refuge-drilling-approved-focus-shifts-to-legal-battles-and-market-forces/" target="_blank">to spark legal challenges</a> from environmental and wildlife organizations.</p>
Is ANWR Oil Worth It?
<p>Today the oil industry is facing its greatest set of challenges in modern history. They include:</p><ul><li>A collapse in oil demand and prices due to the global pandemic, with a sluggish and <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/oil-market-report-august-2020" target="_blank">uncertain recovery</a></li><li>Companies canceling and reducing activity worldwide, with bankruptcies in the U.S. shale industry and <a href="https://energynow.com/2020/08/u-s-oil-gas-rig-count-falls-to-record-low-for-14th-week-baker-hughes/" target="_blank">drilling rig counts</a> falling back to 1940 levels</li><li>New uncertainty about future global oil demand as climate concerns push public interest and government policy toward electric vehicles, and automakers respond with new EV designs</li><li>The growing possibility of Democratic victories in the November 2020 elections, which would likely lead to policies reducing fossil fuel use</li><li>Increasing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-barclays/barclays-pressured-by-shareholders-to-cut-fossil-fuel-financing-idUSKBN1Z700F" target="_blank">investor pressure</a> on banks and investment firms to reduce or eliminate support for fossil fuel projects.</li></ul><p>All of these factors compound the challenges of leasing and drilling in ANWR. Well costs there would be among the highest anywhere onshore in the U.S. Only one well has ever been drilled in the area, so new drilling would be purely exploratory and have a lower chance of success than in better-studied areas. Under these conditions, it would make more sense for companies that are active on Alaska's North Slope to pursue sites they currently have under lease, which pose much lower risk.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NjgzMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDYxODU1OX0.Hio5lx25UgfA_LlmK8SAiPCXI3yM1YMMeRj67Kcc390/img.png?width=980" id="d7d17" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77bcfa6e07ee6840f82cceccbe0a2af7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-l-montgomery-102115" target="_blank"><em>Scott L. Montgomery</em></a><em> is a Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: Scott L. Montgomery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-greenlights-drilling-in-the-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-but-will-oil-companies-show-up-144715" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144715/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>Alaska's North Slope outside of ANWR remains rich in oil, according to the latest U.S. Geological Survey assessment. USGS
<p>What's more, as I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/large-scale-fracking-comes-to-the-arctic-in-a-new-alaska-oil-boom-75683#comment_1264055" target="_blank">argued previously</a>, it's not clear that there's a need to drill in ANWR. Energy companies have made new discoveries elsewhere south and west of Prudhoe Bay – most recently, the <a href="https://www.rigzone.com/news/pantheon_resources_makes_alaska_north_slope_discovery-13-apr-2020-161730-article/" target="_blank">Talitha Field</a>, which could yield 500 million barrels or more.</p><p>Companies that pursue leases in ANWR also will have to weigh the prospects of litigation, investor anger and a tarnished brand – especially large firms with public name recognition. Shell's experience in 2015, when it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/28/shell-backtracks-on-controversial-arctic-drilling-plan/" target="_blank">abandoned plans to drill offshore in the Arctic</a> under heavy pressure, indicate what other companies can expect.</p><p>If Trump is voted out of office, I expect that a Biden administration would quickly move to <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/most-trump-environmental-rollbacks-will-take-years-to-be-reversed/" target="_blank">reverse</a> the directive for leasing in ANWR. In my view, this contested area will have far more meaning and value as a wildlife refuge in a warming world that is starting to seriously move away from hydrocarbon energy.</p>
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A polar bear with cubs at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in North Slope, Alaska in 2014. Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Medi via Getty Images
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, thanks to protections put in place 60 years ago, has remained a pristine oasis in the most remote section of Alaska. Now, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to end those protections and to lease the federal lands to oil and gas exploration, according to The New York Times.
<p>The maneuver will allow oil and gas companies to exploit the vast reserves that sit under what environmentalists call "the last great wilderness," according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/17/trump-alaska-arctic-wildlife-refuge-drilling" target="_blank">The Guardian.</a></p><p>The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is estimated to sit above billions of barrels of oil. However, the 19-million acre sanctuary is home to polar bears, various waterfowl, migrating caribou and Arctic foxes that make the area their year-round home. In all, the refuge is home to more than 270 species, including the world's remaining Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears, 250 musk oxen and 300,000 snow geese, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/17/trump-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-alaska/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The Trump administration plans to open the perimeter to drilling, roughly 1.6 million acres in coastline, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>The Department of the Interior said it had completed all the requisite reviews and intended to start selling leases to the land soon. Speaking to reporters, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said, "I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year," as The New York Times reported.</p><p>Bernhardt added that offering the leases, "marks a new chapter in American energy independence" and predicted it could "create thousands of new jobs," according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/politics/trump-arctic-wildlife-drilling/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>He also said in his conference call with reporters that he was moving forward with a 2017 budget bill, passed by a Republican-led congress, that insisted that the Federal government open up oil and gas leasing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/17/trump-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-alaska/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The push to open up the wildlife refuge marks a significant energy policy for an administration that has been hostile to the urgency of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> and invested heavily in greenhouse gas-emitting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>. According to <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2019/11/20/477495/trumps-energy-policies-put-alaska-climate-crosshairs/" target="_blank">research</a> from the Centers for American Progress, the drilling would result in more than 4.3 billion tons of CO2 emissions, which is roughly 75 percent of the nation's annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>"This is our nation's last great wilderness," said Adam Kolton, the executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, as The Guardian reported. "Nowhere else in the five-nation circle polar north do you have such abundant and diverse wildlife."</p>
<p>The migrating porcupine caribou is important to the culture of the indigenous Gwich'in people, many of whom reside alongside the caribou's migrating pattern.</p><p>"This area they just opened is their calving grounds," said Bernadette Demienti, executive director of the Gwich'in steering committee, as The Guardian reported. "This is a place that is so sacred to the Gwich'in that we don't go there. Our creation story tells us that we made a vow with the caribou that we would take care of each other. They have taken care of us, and now it is our turn to take care of them."</p><p>Demienti added that the caribou have already started to change their migration pattern as global warming afflicts the Arctic at a rapid pace, changing the landscape and the vegetation that the ruminants rely on.</p><p>Environmentalists like Kolton intend to fight the leases in federal court, where a protracted legal battle is expected to play out.</p><p>"We will continue to fight this at every turn," said Kolton in a statement, as The New York Times reported. "Any oil company that would seek to drill in the Arctic Refuge will face enormous reputational, legal and financial risks."</p>
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Trump Admin Reverses Obama-Era Restrictions on Pebble Mine Near Alaska's Largest Salmon Nursery
27 July
Politics
The Bristol Bay watershed supports the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. World Wildlife Fund / YouTube
Officials from the Trump administration announced last week that a plan to open a copper and gold mine that threatens Alaska's largest salmon nursery would not pose a serious environmental threat.
<p>This is a sharp about-face for the U.S. government, after <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-alaska-mining-salmon-2646141959.html" target="_self">the Obama-administration cited environmental concerns</a> and the threat to the spawning ground of the region's prized sockeye salmon when it put the brakes on the project in 2012, and again when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>) expressed concerns about the salmon in 2014.</p><p>This new move represents the latest salvo in the Trump administration's thorough and systematic dismantling of environmental efforts and regulations from the previous administration. When it comes to the Pebble Mine, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/07/24/pebble-mine-alaska-trump/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported, a <a href="https://pebbleprojecteis.com/documents/finaleis" target="_blank">final environmental analysis</a> issued Friday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that the mine — which targets a deposit of gold, copper and other minerals worth up to $500 billion — "would not be expected to have a measurable effect on fish numbers" in the Bristol Bay watershed, which supports the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.</p><p>Opponents of Pebble Mine criticized the review process as rushed, flawed, and favorable to the mine developer, as the <a href="https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2020/07/23/as-a-major-federal-environmental-review-comes-to-a-close-six-things-to-know-about-the-pebble-mine-proposal/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a joint statement, Alannah Hurley with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Norm Van Vactor with Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., Ralph Andersen with Bristol Bay Native Association and Katherine Carscallen with Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay said the final review "completely fails to adequately assess the impacts of Pebble on Bristol Bay's waters, salmon, and people," according to the Anchorage Daily News.</p><p>The mine will be located in two watersheds that feed fish-spawning rivers. Opponents say traces of heavy metals and other contaminants left from the mining operation pose risks if they leach into groundwater or if dams holding back the tailings fail in an earthquake, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/climate/pebble-mine-alaska-environment.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>Opposition to the mine has been widespread, both in the region and statewide, for nearly two decades, with concerns about environmental damage and the potential harm to the area's salmon, which are the main traditional subsistence food for many of the Native Alaskans in the region and the crux of both sport-fishing and commercial fishing in the area, according to The New York Times.</p><p>The open-pit mine calls for a large dammed area to trap the tailings from mining operations that would be toxic to the fish. It also calls for the 80 new miles of road to carry the concentrated tailings away to Cook Inlet. Additionally, the mining company wants to build a 165-mile natural gas pipeline for a generating plant to power the operation.</p>
<p>According to the Corps, the operations would permanently destroy more than 2,200 acres of wetlands and waters, and 105 miles of streams. The EPA indicated earlier this year that it would not block the project at this point, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>Opponents have argued that the environmental impact statement was not rigorous enough, as they highlighted hazardous risks, including the potential for a tailings dam failure that could contaminate waterways used by spawning fish and harm the Bristol Bay fishery, which employs about 15,000 people. They also note that Alaska is the most seismically active state in the nation, and critics said the Corps had not taken sufficient account of the risk of earthquakes or volcanic activity, and that its analysis of the dam designs was inadequate, particularly since a few of the dams would be hundreds of feet high, as The New York Times reported.</p>
<p>Taryn Kiekow Heimer, who leads the the Natural Resources Defense Council's effort to stop the project, told The Washington Post that the administration's push to greenlight a massive project that is opposed by neighboring <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples">Indigenous</a> communities amounts to environmental injustice.</p><p>"It's especially embarrassing for the government and appalling given the current social context we are in," she said of the accelerated approval process. "It's just another example of the entrenched and systemic racism that this government is showing to people of color and indigenous people in particular."</p><p>The Pebble Mine, like logging in Alaska' <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-wildfires-trump-alaska-exploitation-2640082295.html" target="_self">Tongass forest</a>, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/keystone-xl" target="_self">Keystone XL</a> pipeline, and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-shut-down-2646355663.html" target="_self">Dakota Access</a> pipeline, is a gift to industry that the Trump administration has tried to fast track. All those projects could be reversed if a Democratic administration takes office in January, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/07/24/pebble-mine-alaska-trump/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
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A polar bear with two playful cubs. Jennie Gosché
By Jennie Gosché
In late 2019, before the world was completely upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, I was presented a last-minute chance to photograph polar bears outside one of the northernmost villages in the United States — Kaktovik, Alaska. It was an opportunity I couldn't refuse, and as the COVID-19 pandemic now stretches into summer 2020, I'm grateful I accepted.
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDg0NDEyOX0.ducqI5scB-Y8YGfBjJy8MH782PWfHnMc3M2N5yrh9dE/img.jpg?width=980" id="86ac9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="99cd2f84506e478d8022f6c9a3064b44" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Polar bears adorn the sign leading into Kaktovik. Jennie Gosché
<p>Kaktovik is an Inupiat native village of around 250 people on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, located on barrier islands at the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My first trip there took place in September 2016, and I traveled with the purpose to photograph the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/southern-beaufort-sea-polar-bear-population-declined-2000s#:~:text=The%20polar%20bear%20was%20listed,ice%20loss%20on%20their%20populations." target="_blank">threatened Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population</a>. The coastal region of the Arctic Refuge in fall is a special place to photograph these magnificent animals, as they congregate on dirt and sand spits of land waiting for the winter ice of the Beaufort Sea to make its way to the Alaska shore.</p><p>During the late summer and early fall, Inupiat boat owners from Kaktovik guide "tourist" photographers out to view polar bears from a safe distance in the placid lagoon adjacent to the raging waves of the Beaufort Sea. I joined one such group of photographers led by <a href="https://hughrosephotography.com/" target="_blank">Hugh Rose</a>, a professional photographer and geologist who lives in Fairbanks, and we took a short charter flight from Deadhorse to Kaktovik, landing in a morning snowstorm. But by afternoon, the sun was out and we had three and a half days of sunshine that combined with the ice and snow to create great conditions in which to photograph polar bears.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDE1ODE5M30.wlTpUch74PsdZbvOOVmlJLlEfOS3UHI9S1yb1orCbf4/img.jpg?width=980" id="f9de2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="57baaf66d893539215aba68cdae72e8c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The welcome sign at the Waldo Arms Hotel. Jeff Stamer / www.firefallphotography.com
<p>We were out in the lagoon twice a day, breaking only for lunch at our hotel, the modest but welcoming <a href="http://www.waldoarmshotel.net/" target="_blank">Waldo Arms Hotel</a> owned by Walt "Waldo" Audi and Merlyn Trainer — one of only two options for places to stay in Kaktovik when visiting. The boat guides are skilled, and they have to be, because knowledge and awareness of depths in the lagoon is critical to prevent a boat from getting stuck in shallow water.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDM3NTQ1NH0.erl1bkwyRS9tYzJTVnPD5FL4eUk4e7EMLnv7bKmcQmI/img.jpg?width=980" id="e1274" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="28ddc335167786f68044d07a092f1d82" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Polar bear viewing is done by boat for the safety of both people and polar bears. Jennie Gosché
<p>This trip we were in a boat with a heated cabin, a perk since we were there later in the season. Our boat driver, however, told us that at that very same time the previous year, the lagoon was completely frozen over. He shared this as we floated on the lagoon in open water, though ice was visible in places and we occasionally heard pieces rubbing against the hull of the metal boat.</p><p>____________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>With rapidly rising temperatures, <a href="http://forestry.alaska.gov/Assets/pdfs/firestats/2019%20Alaska%20Fire%20Statistics.pdf" target="_blank">increases in wildfires</a>, thawing permafrost, receding glaciers, <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/11/21/new-report-sheds-more-light-on-climate-change-impacts-to-alaska-native-villages/" target="_blank">eroding coastlines</a> and disappearing sea ice, <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/whats-become-of-arctic.php" target="_blank">Alaska and the Arctic are on the front lines of climate change</a>. It has hit Alaska's rural communities and <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/11/21/new-report-sheds-more-light-on-climate-change-impacts-to-alaska-native-villages/" target="_blank">Alaska Native villages especially hard</a>, including villages like <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/25/changes-in-climate-make-alaskas-traditional-ice-cellars-unreliable/" target="_blank">Kaktovik</a>. Warming waters and the disappearing Arctic ice cap are also impacting ocean life, from plankton to <a href="https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Polar-bears-face-swimming-to-land-or-ecological-trap-as-sea-ice-diminishes-567243261.html" target="_blank">polar bears</a> to whales. And the decline in sea ice is making it <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/environment/indigenous_impacts.html" target="_blank">increasingly unsafe for humans and wildlife to travel across it</a> to hunt marine mammals like seals, walrus and bowhead whales.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU2OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODkyMzUyMH0.yboTwh7hnlLyKF3hiJn3JAF_ClTFFXjxSx0bFMDvLLM/img.jpg?width=980" id="7fcbc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dd629612d9e0b2b3d95ca96a1fafe6d3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Coastal erosion is causing permafrost to thaw and break off, here along the Arctic coastal plain in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. Brandt Meixell, U.S.Geological Survey
<p>The Inupiat are primarily subsistence hunters and whalers, harvesting whales each summer (in addition to caribou and other wildlife), the meat from which is shared by the entire village. It is a staple of their diet and has been for thousands of years, but as temperatures warm, the lack of ice combined with changes in whale migration patterns and timing could make hunting progressively more difficult.</p><p>The Inupiat <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/pbcommunity.html" target="_blank">share their whale meat with the polar bears</a>, something they have done for many years. This gesture provides much needed food for polar bears, especially as they spend longer periods of time on land due to the receding sea ice. When I visited Kaktovik in 2016, my most memorable photo is of a cub on top of whale bones, shaking what looks like animal skin in its mouth.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDg0OTE0N30.0_0GgJUfWyM96OOfooius3AoGASWNwoUjBk40SVeES4/img.jpg?width=980" id="f176f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="babdb9d27ca6834212bc276596e92df3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Bears have learned to scavenge whale carcasses left over from successful whaling hunts. Jennie Gosché
<p>As I returned to the village in late 2019, however, they had moved the bone pile away from the lagoon to an area off-limits to tourists. I was told the bone pile now only stays on land for a short time, and then the bones are pushed into the ocean. Eventually, this change could affect the overall health of the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears, as many of them increasingly den on land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and utilize the shared whale meat for sustenance during the summer and early fall before they enter their maternal birthing dens in November.<br>____________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Which brings me back to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as wild a place as any other on Earth but one also under threat of oil and gas development. While in Kaktovik I learned that there is not a consensus in the village on the question of allowing oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Climate change and impacts to wildlife are serious concerns, so much so that more than 60 village residents <a href="https://www.adn.com/opinions/2017/12/13/those-who-would-open-anwr-do-not-speak-for-kaktovik/" target="_blank">signed a petition in 2017 opposing drilling on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain</a>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzY1Mzk4OH0.mbTdFW-RUFS12gFR5cnUKtB7aERaAYyfBpAo7FpL6EU/img.jpg?width=980" id="a986f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a69634ab2a4cb7218e73571fb67e8825" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Oil production facilities dominate the region around Prudhoe Bay, to the West of the Arctic Refuge. Florian Schulz / www.florianschulz.org
<p>Helping to prevent development in the <a href="https://www.alaskawild.org/places-we-protect/arctic-refuge/" target="_blank">Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</a> — a place that supports the greatest variety of plant and animal life in the entire circumpolar north — is very important to me, not least of all because the <a href="https://www.alaskawild.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/USGS-wildlife-report-statement-1-26-2018-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. government has admitted</a> it simply doesn't have enough information about the impacts of oil and gas development on the coastal plain to protect its wildlife and other values. Oil drilling <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2019/11/20/477495/trumps-energy-policies-put-alaska-climate-crosshairs/" target="_blank">will compound the devastating climate impacts</a> already being felt by villages in the region, increasing carbon emissions, worsening climate pollution and further harming front line communities.</p><p>Especially now, in the midst of an uncertain present and looking forward to an uncertain future, we need to press pause on Arctic Refuge development. Instead of recklessly rushing ahead, more research over extended periods of time is needed so that we can fully understand the potential impact oil drilling will have on local villages, our climate and wildlife like the majestic polar bear.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzU3NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjY0MDg3NX0.dZU0z5o9B6w9N7iMkL0RIC1EL86kfp1CX8QoksRnTkM/img.jpg?width=980" id="5c491" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="00847007e12c1478891865721f7dc0c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A mother nurses her cubs. Jennie Gosché
<p><em>Jennie Gosché has traveled to the Arctic seven times to photograph polar bears. Having visited the five countries where polar bears are found (Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russia, the United States and Canada), Kaktovik, Alaska, has become her favorite place to photograph them. Jennie's photography has been exhibited in Washington, D.C., Minneapolis and Maryland. She is a member of Alaska Wilderness League.</em></p>
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A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska at 10:12 p.m. local time on July 21, 2020. USGS
Alaskans were rattled by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake Tuesday night that sent people fleeing for higher ground in case of a possible tsunami, before the warning was canceled.
<p>The quake struck offshore at 10:12 p.m. local time and was located around 500 miles southwest of Anchorage and around 60 miles southeast of Perryville, Alaska, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earthquake-alaska-tsuani-warning-evacuations-kodiak/" target="_blank">CBS News reported</a>.</p>
<p>"This is a very significant earthquake in size," Alaska Earthquake Center seismologist Michael West told the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/07/21/strong-earthquake-prompts-tsunami-warning-from-alaska-peninsula-to-western-kenai/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a>. </p>
<div id="d0ed7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ec99e5a42425af683ade8fd6b9374c90"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1285884824293646336" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">M 7.8 earthquake strikes 105 km SSE of Perryville, Alaska. Tsunami warning canceled. https://t.co/bUwKvi65Lg Le… https://t.co/DlORAa8a2I</div> — USGS (@USGS)<a href="https://twitter.com/USGS/statuses/1285884824293646336">1595413807.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The earthquake initially triggered a tsunami warning for South Alaska, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, CBS News reported.</p>
<p>"Based on the preliminary earthquake parameters... hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, according to CBS News. </p>
<p>The warning prompted evacuations in towns and cities including Kodiak, Sand Point, Unalaska and Homer, the Anchorage Daily News reported. </p>
<p>"We were in a (city) council meeting and started feeling it rocking, and by the time I got home from the council meeting then the warnings were going and had to turn back around," Unalaska City Manager Erin Reinders told the Anchorage Daily News.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Kodiak, residents sheltered in Kodiak High School and the local Catholic school while also trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus.</p>
<p>"We've got a high school full of people. I've been passing out masks since the first siren sounded," Kodiak School District superintendent Larry LeDoux told the Anchorage Daily News. "Everything's as calm as can be. We've got probably 300, 400 people all wearing masks."</p>
<div id="2555c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ff8223dcb0d414e1b97fafad5bfa5fd2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1285826396325949441" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Tsunami warning in kodiak AK https://t.co/pBio9lnWDF</div> — Tyler 🏳️🌈 (@Tyler 🏳️🌈)<a href="https://twitter.com/Tyler82092707/statuses/1285826396325949441">1595399877.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The warnings were canceled by 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. However, a tsunami measuring 0.8 feet was reported in the city of Sand Point, according to CBS.</p><p>Because of its size and characteristics, Tuesday's quake had the potential to be devastating.</p><p>For one thing, it was shallow, measuring six miles, or 10 kilometers, deep, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/us/alaska-7-8-magnitude-earthquake/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. </p><p>"Anything below 70 kilometers is considered a shallow quake," CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar explained. "That's important, because shallow earthquakes often cause the most damage, compared to the ones that are deeper, regardless of the strength."</p><p>Shallow quakes are also more likely to produce tsunamis, according to the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-it-about-earthquake-causes-a-tsunami?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products" target="_blank">U.S. Geological Survey</a>. </p>
<p>West told the Anchorage Daily News that Tuesday's earthquake was more or less the same type as the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.</p>
<p>That earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in North America, with a magnitude of 9.2, CBS explained. The quake and following tsunami killed more than 250 people.</p><p>"These are the style of earthquakes which can be very tsunami-producing," West told the Anchorage Daily News.</p>
<p> The fact that Tuesday's quake occurred offshore reduced shaking, West said. Officials did not think the shaking caused any damage.</p>
<p>"No reports of any damage," Kodiak Police Sgt. Mike Sorter told The Associated Press early Wednesday morning, as <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/22/alaska-earthquake-tsunami-warning/5484967002/" target="_blank">USA TODAY reported</a>. "No injuries were reported. Everything is nominal."</p><p>CNN also reported that more than 20 aftershocks have followed into early Wednesday, ranging in magnitude from 2.8 to 6.1.</p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that CNN reported the depth of the quake at six miles. CNN has corrected this number to 17 miles. </em><em>The article has been corrected to reflect this change.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Kobuk River in Alaska on Aug. 30, 2011. 16Terezka / CC BY-SA 3.0
Around 15,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled in a Native Alaskan village Saturday, threatening a nearby river and the local drinking water supply.
<p>The spill occurred during a routine fuel delivery to the Northwest Arctic village of Shungnak. The fuel spilled around 12:30 p.m. June 20, but was not discovered by the villagers until 1:06 p.m. They reported it to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) immediately thereafter, <a href="http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/2026thousands_of_gallons_of_heating_oil_spill_in" target="_blank">The Arctic Sounder reported</a>.</p><p>"A response crew from Shungnak responded to the spill immediately, removing the spilled heating oil using sorbent material and also by pumping it into containers," ADEC said in a situation report.</p>
<p>There have been no injuries reported and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-spill" target="_self">oil spill</a> has not harmed any wildlife so far. However, there are concerns that it could spread to sensitive areas.</p><p>"The extent of contamination has been reported by the incident commander to be approximately 160 feet from the Kobuk River and approximately 295 feet from the Shungnak drinking water source," ADEC said.</p><p>The spill occurred when fuel intended for the Shungnak Native Store was delivered to the school instead, <a href="https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/15000-gallon-oil-spill-reported-near-Kobuk-River-571436521.html" target="_blank">KTUU reported</a>. This caused fuel tank #1 to overflow. The fuel was being transferred from a barge on the Kobuk River. All transfers have now been stopped.</p>
<p>The cleanup efforts have been impacted by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/06/23/15000-gallon-heating-oil-spill-reported-in-kobuk-river-village-of-shungnak/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Radio reported</a>. Because of travel restrictions, officials from ADEC and the Environmental Protection Agency cannot travel to the spill site. Instead, both agencies are in contact with local responders.</p><p>"ADEC will continue to monitor the response actions and review plans being developed to clean up contaminated soils from the area and prevent heating oil migration to nearby resources," ADEC said, according to The Arctic Sounder.</p><p>The Kobuk River flows for 380 miles from the Endicott Mountains to Kotzebue Sound, according to the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gaar/kobukriver.htm" target="_blank">National Park Service</a>. It is one of the only two spawning grounds for the Kobuk/Selawik population of sheefish and also an important habitat for grayling, arctic char, whitefish, chum salmon and lake trout. It is also a subsistence fishing site for Native Alaskan communities and the wintering grounds for the Western Arctic caribou herd.</p>
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The Pile River flows into the northern end of Lake Iliamna. The lake and its tributaries are the headwaters of the Bristol Bay region, one of the richest salmon fisheries in the world. Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers last week to say that it would not oppose or put a stop to a huge copper and gold mine near the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, as The Washington Post reported.
<p>The Pebble Mine, a vast copper and gold deposit, is worth an estimated $500 billion in natural resources. However, it is in the Bristol Bay region of southwest <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alaska">Alaska</a>, a resource that brings in $1.5 billion annually and provides a vital food source for thousands of Alaska Native residents who live there, according to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alaska-pebble-mine-bristol-bay/" target="_blank">PBS</a>. An effort to build the mine at the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed has been an ongoing fight in Alaska.</p><p>The project was seemingly dead in 2012, but it got a new lease on life with the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration when the Pebble Partnership filed for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in late 2017. The EPA has raised many concerns about the project, saying that it may result in substantial and unacceptable impacts to "aquatic resources of national importance," as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported.</p>
<p>In response, the Army Corps of Engineers announced what that the least damaging way to bring the ore out of the mine would be to take it out around the north side of Lake Iliamna, according to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>.</p><p>Christopher Hladick, the EPA's regional administrator for Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, wrote to the Alaska district engineer, Col. David Hibner, that the agency's serious concerns about the plan continued. He noted that the concerns include the fact that dredging for the open pit mine "may well contribute to the permanent loss of 2,292 acres of wetlands and ... 105.4 miles of streams," as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The EPA will still have the authority to veto the project, but the latest letter makes it unlikely to do so.</p>
<p>Mark Ryan, a lawyer in private practice who served as regional counsel in EPA Region 10 between 1990 and 2014, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> that the EPA's letter appears contradictory.</p><p>"It's a very odd letter," Ryan said. "It points out the mine's very serious environmental damage but then does not invoke EPA's powers to elevate the issue for further discussion."</p><p>"Today's decision ... gives us more reason to believe that there will be no veto," Pebble CEO Tom Collier said in a written statement, as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/28/in-showdown-over-pebble-mine-epa-blinks/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported. "This is consistent with our observation that (the Corps) and EPA, and the other cooperating agencies, have been working well together to resolve all outstanding issues."</p>
<p>Opponents of the project argue that the mine will damage the salmon, which are critical for the economy, for sustenance and for the region's cultural heritage.</p><p>"There are still many substantive issues with the project proposal that have yet to be resolved," said Daniel Cheyette, the vice president of Bristol Bay Native Corp., whose Alaska Native corporation opposes the mine, which would be the largest in North America, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/29/epa-opts-not-delay-controversial-alaska-mine-now/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>While the Army Corps of Engineers has said the mine will have minimal impact on the salmon, environmental groups strongly disagree.</p><p>"It's about four times larger than the largest mine the EPA said that it was willing to consider for permitting," said Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alaska-pebble-mine-bristol-bay/" target="_blank">PBS</a>. "The notion that the contaminants can be contained in any reliable fashion in that kind of environment has never been proven, never been tested, and in the judgment of virtually any independent scientist, simply can't be done."</p>
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Wolf pups with their mother at their den site. Design Pics / Getty Images
In another reversal of Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is having the National Park Service rescind a 2015 order that protected bears and wolves within protected lands.
<p>The new rule, remarkable in its cruelty, will allow hunters to shoot bears, wolves, along with their cubs and pups while the animals are in their dens in the popular Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. It also puts ends a ban on some nefarious practices like luring bears with doughnuts, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/28/alaska-bears-wolves-trump-rules-hunters" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director for the Center for Western Priorities, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/28/alaska-bears-wolves-trump-rules-hunters" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> that the rule change is "amazingly cruel" and said it was "just the latest in a string of efforts to reduce protections for America's wildlife at the behest of oil companies and trophy hunters."</p>
<p>The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued separate statements that their actions are designed to align federal and state law, according to the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/05/21/trump-administration-moves-to-ease-rules-for-hunting-bears-and-wolves-on-federal-lands-in-alaska/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a>. The National Park Service manages 10 preserves in the state, including Denali National Park and Preserve. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge lies west of the park.</p><p>NPS Alaska spokesperson Pete Christian told <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/21/national-park-service-rule-change-puts-state-back-in-charge-of-wildlife-management-in-preserves/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> that although practices like killing bears and wolves in dens go against the Park Service's mission, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which created or expanded many of Alaska's national preserves, grants the state management authority.</p>
<p>"It supercedes, to some extent, the NPS Organic Act and some of our regular management policies, and so the parks up here were designed to have preserve units in them which allow for hunting and trapping as per state law," Christian said.</p><p>The Park Service decision to defer to the state is the latest move in a legal conflict around who has ultimate authority over the protected lands. The conflict dates back to 2015, when the Obama administration initially banned certain state-permitted predator harvests on Alaska's preserve lands, as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/21/national-park-service-rule-change-puts-state-back-in-charge-of-wildlife-management-in-preserves/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported.</p>
<p>While the number of hunters that will actually plow ahead into the national preserve to hunt bears and wolves in their dens is probably quite small, the spirit of the practice is extreme and inconsistent with the values of the national preserve, according to Pat Lavin with the Defenders of Wildlife in Anchorage who spoke to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/05/21/national-park-service-rule-change-puts-state-back-in-charge-of-wildlife-management-in-preserves/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>.</p><p>"The Trump administration has shockingly reached a new low in its treatment of wildlife," Defenders of Wildlife President Jamie Rappaport Clark said, as the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaska-increase-hunting-trapping-1.5581668" target="_blank">CBC</a> reported. "Allowing the killing of bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens is barbaric and inhumane."</p><p>The new rule also allows hunters to shoot caribou from traveling motorboats and to kill swimming caribou, according to the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alaska-increase-hunting-trapping-1.5581668" target="_blank">CBC</a>.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/28/alaska-bears-wolves-trump-rules-hunters" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> noted, the move is part and parcel with a pattern from Trump's Department of the Interior, which has consistently sought to expand access to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands">public lands</a> to hunters and fossil fuel companies. Last month, it proposed expanding public hunting and fishing access by more than 2.3 million acres on 97 national wildlife refuges and nine national fish hatcheries.</p>
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Drilling on Public Lands: Native American Voices Frustrated by Virtual Public Hearings Over Zoom
20 May
Politics
Nuiqsut resident Martha Itta said that she was "frustrated and saddened" after an April 23 online meeting where she says she was muted. She described technology as a hurdle that excludes many members of the public in rural Alaska. U.S. Department of the Interior
The Trump administration has attempted to plow forward with its plans to open up public lands to drilling for oil and gas exploration. To do so, it has continued to hold public meetings over Zoom. That means that Native American groups who often have spotty internet service or no service at all are not able to participate in the public meetings, according to The Washington Post.
<p>While tribal groups are often vociferous in public meetings in an attempt to protect their land from encroaching industry and the pollution that accompanies it, some have complained that the technology creates a roadblock to participating in the public discussion.</p><p>More than 30 percent of tribal lands lack access to basic broadband, <a href="https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-44A1.pdf" target="_blank">according</a> to the Federal Communications Commission.</p>
<p>The issue was recently relevant in Alaska, where ConocoPhillips is looking to expand its drilling operation in Alaska's North Slope. The project would move drilling deeper into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the direction of currently protected habitat. It would also increase development that may affect the Alaska Native village of Nuiqsut, which sits just inside the petroleum reserve border and is home to roughly 400 people, as <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063068097" target="_blank">E&E News</a> reported.</p><p>Martha Itta, a resident of Nuiqsut, said in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management's project manager, Rachael Jones, that she was "frustrated and saddened" after an April 23 meeting. She described technology as a hurdle that excludes many members of the public in rural Alaska, as <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063068097" target="_blank">E&E News</a> reported.</p><p>She also noted in the letter that the Zoom platform gave outsized control to the moderator. "I myself was muted after my initial comment and they would not unmute me," she wrote in her letter, as <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063068097" target="_blank">E&E News</a> reported.</p>
<p>"How many North Slope members have access to WiFi?" Raymond Ipalook, vice president of the tribal council in the Alaska Native village of Nuiqsut, asked during one virtual hearing on April 21, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2020/05/18/the-energy-202-public-hearings-on-zoom-have-native-americans-worried-they-won-t-be-heard-on-oil-projects/5ec15672602ff11bb1183c87/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. "That's what I want to know. How many of them know that this webinar is going on?"</p><p>A similar problem happened with a proposed project in New Mexico, where there were complaints of speakers being dropped by bad connections and moderators muting the microphones of meeting participants.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Land Management, however, is telling another story, saying that the virtual meetings are a resounding success and allowing more people to participate in the meetings. According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2020/05/18/the-energy-202-public-hearings-on-zoom-have-native-americans-worried-they-won-t-be-heard-on-oil-projects/5ec15672602ff11bb1183c87/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, more than 300 people participated in eight virtual public meetings in Alaska while 100 participated in the first in New Mexico last Thursday, with yet more viewing on Facebook, the BLM said. By contrast, 250 attendees showed up to six in-person meetings held in Anchorage, Fairbanks and other spots in Alaska last year.</p>
<p>In northwestern New Mexico, where an oil and gas project would infringe on Pueblo land, speakers asked the government to pause the public comment period, since they would like more time to make their voices heard before the government moves forward with a plan that will bring energy and other development near cultural sites considered sacred to New Mexico's Pueblos and other tribal groups within the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2020/05/18/the-energy-202-public-hearings-on-zoom-have-native-americans-worried-they-won-t-be-heard-on-oil-projects/5ec15672602ff11bb1183c87/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>"Although I am participating in today's virtual public meeting, I want to make clear that the All Pueblo Council of Governors and our member Pueblos have not had the resources necessary to meaningfully comment," said Marissa Naranjo, policy director with the All Pueblo Council of Governors, noting that the two counties surrounding the protected area have some the highest coronavirus infection rates in New Mexico, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2020/05/18/the-energy-202-public-hearings-on-zoom-have-native-americans-worried-they-won-t-be-heard-on-oil-projects/5ec15672602ff11bb1183c87/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>The entire congressional delegation for New Mexico has asked that the public comment hearing be extended 120 days.</p>
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An unstable slope above Barry Glacier in Barry Arm, Alaska, could trigger a landslide and major tsunami. Christian Zimmerman / USGS
As the climate crisis takes hold, the effects are noticed most conspicuously at the extremes like the poles and the desert, where the harsh environments are drastically altered by a changing climate.
<p>The latest evidence is from a melting <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers">glacier</a> in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alaska" target="_self">Alaska</a> that may trigger a landslide that catalyzes a major tsunami, scientists warned on Thursday, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.<br></p><p>A <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6890609-5-14-20-Barry-Arm-Landslide-Working-Group-Letter.html" target="_blank">public letter</a> signed by several scientists warns it's possible that the landslide and tsunami could happen "within the next year, and likely within 20 years," and detailed potentially devastating effects.</p>
<p>The scientists warn that an unstable, mile-long slope that sits above Prince William Sound, about 60 miles east of Anchorage, is supported only by a glacier in retreat. Warming temperatures have caused the ice to melt, leaving only one-third of the slope supported by ice. That means an earthquake, a heat wave, or prolonged heavy rain could trigger a landslide, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>If the slope above Barry Glacier crumbled, it could impact tourism, fishing and hunting, according to the letter. It could also lead to 30-foot waves that reach the town of Whittier, 28 miles away across Prince William Sound, according to the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2020/05/14/scientists-warn-about-risk-of-massive-tsunami-in-prince-william-sound-potentially-within-the-next-year/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a>.</p>
<p>The glacier's retreat "could release millions of tons of rock into the Harriman Fiord, triggering a tsunami at least as large as some of the largest in the state's recorded history," according to a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6890608-5-14-20-Potential-Landslide-Threatens-Large.html" target="_blank">statement</a> from the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, as the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2020/05/14/scientists-warn-about-risk-of-massive-tsunami-in-prince-william-sound-potentially-within-the-next-year/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a> reported.</p><p>The Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Fish and Game responded to the warning from the scientists by issuing a warning that "strongly recommend people avoid all the identified danger zones until the hazards can be adequately understood and characterized," according to the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2020/05/14/scientists-warn-about-risk-of-massive-tsunami-in-prince-william-sound-potentially-within-the-next-year/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a>.</p><p>"As a hazard, it's really worrisome," said researcher, Hig Higman, who studies geological hazards and runs an organization called Ground Truth based in Seldovia, Alaska, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The tsunami models produced by Patrick Lynett at the University of Southern California show a tsunami reaching hundreds of feet in elevation, with the ability to reach Whittier within 20 minutes. Other cities on the Prince William Sound, like Valdez and Cordova, could also see less destructive waves that may damage harbors and docks and threaten people in those areas, according to <a href="https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Potential-landslide-triggered-tsunami-threatens-Prince-William-Sound-570489061.html" target="_blank">KTUU</a>, Anchorage's NBC News affiliate.</p><p>The computer model shows that a collapse of the entire slope—roughly estimated to be 500 million cubic meters of rock and dirt, or several hundred times the volume of the Hoover Dam—may trigger a tsunami that starts out at several hundred feet high, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>Since the slope has been moving for decades, the researchers estimated that the landslide is possible within a year and almost certain to happen within the next two decades. "It could happen anytime, but the risk just goes way up as this glacier recedes," said Anna Liljedahl, an Alaska-based hydrologist with the <a href="https://whrc.org/" target="_blank" title="">Woods Hole Research Center</a> in Massachusetts, who was part of the team, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/alaska-landslide-tsunami.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>While the research has not yet been peer-reviewed, Liljedahl said the researchers wanted to get the information out to inform the public of a looming threat.</p><p>"We wanted to let the public know that there is a chance that this landslide might fail catastrophically," Liljedahl said, as the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2020/05/14/scientists-warn-about-risk-of-massive-tsunami-in-prince-william-sound-potentially-within-the-next-year/" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a> reported. "There's also a chance that it might not."</p>
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A harbour seal on an ice floe in Glacier Bay, Alaska. A new study shows that the climate crisis has warmed waters, changing ecosystems and crippling sea ice growth. Janette Hill / robertharding / Getty Images Plus
The climate crisis is accelerating the rate of change in Alaska's marine ecosystem far faster than scientists had previously thought, causing possibly irreversible changes, according to new research, as Newsweek reported.
<p>The new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0695-2.epdf?referrer_access_token=CO2LiJIJlZL_98zWr-VWLNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O7LDNa0WF3Wh7MTmHaeaZVv2T9vIb8LrGUH8lMDd4MucAiKlopvTPVSZQJLbwuKLvlF6PVBG232cHDJJ63lWSEDUVS9kwNNfLAjMIN0QuTNz0R8kc1mn-lHI8ur799j_zhNc9mfrvx6GWd-hGvHFHmVMtycew6loVKQzTg2RpViRu6PoY2G232NIEvKSzyZk4K9OwQk9Z3hHcmjLiDNgIvIplP-v82bpHIt52Qp8rj5A%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.newsweek.com" target="_blank">study</a> from the University of Alaska Fairbanks shows that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a> has warmed waters, changing ecosystems and crippling sea ice growth. The researchers told <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> that now is the perfect time to study Alaskan waters before warmer temperatures become the new normal.</p><p>Seth Danielson, one of the researchers on the paper told <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> that their team was shocked by the record low <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice" target="_self">sea ice</a> and record high <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">ocean</a> temperatures of the last couple of years.</p><p>"It was a bit surprising because we felt like it came a couple decades too early," said Danielson to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>.</p><p>The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change said that 2017 showed signs of "a sudden and dramatic shift," according to the <a href="https://www.ibtimes.sg/alaskas-marine-ecosystem-undergoes-sudden-shift-due-climate-change-39972" target="_blank">International Business Times</a>.</p><p>This dramatic changes in ocean temperatures will have large impacts on the region, not only to the marine populations, but to the commercial fishing industry and to local populations that rely on subsistence fishing, as the <a href="https://www.ibtimes.sg/alaskas-marine-ecosystem-undergoes-sudden-shift-due-climate-change-39972" target="_blank">International Business Times</a> reported.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0695-2.epdf?referrer_access_token=CO2LiJIJlZL_98zWr-VWLNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O7LDNa0WF3Wh7MTmHaeaZVv2T9vIb8LrGUH8lMDd4MucAiKlopvTPVSZQJLbwuKLvlF6PVBG232cHDJJ63lWSEDUVS9kwNNfLAjMIN0QuTNz0R8kc1mn-lHI8ur799j_zhNc9mfrvx6GWd-hGvHFHmVMtycew6loVKQzTg2RpViRu6PoY2G232NIEvKSzyZk4K9OwQk9Z3hHcmjLiDNgIvIplP-v82bpHIt52Qp8rj5A%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.newsweek.com" target="_blank">study</a> focused on 2017, temperatures over the last two years suggest a lasting change is in the works.</p><p>"Many changes persisted in 2018 and even into 2019, suggesting that 2017 was not a passing oddity of brief consequence to social-ecological systems, but a sign of what is to come," according to the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0695-2.epdf?referrer_access_token=CO2LiJIJlZL_98zWr-VWLNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O7LDNa0WF3Wh7MTmHaeaZVv2T9vIb8LrGUH8lMDd4MucAiKlopvTPVSZQJLbwuKLvlF6PVBG232cHDJJ63lWSEDUVS9kwNNfLAjMIN0QuTNz0R8kc1mn-lHI8ur799j_zhNc9mfrvx6GWd-hGvHFHmVMtycew6loVKQzTg2RpViRu6PoY2G232NIEvKSzyZk4K9OwQk9Z3hHcmjLiDNgIvIplP-v82bpHIt52Qp8rj5A%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.newsweek.com" target="_blank">study</a>, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/alaska-marine-ecosystem-shift-climate-change-scientists-1488753" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported.</p><p>The reduction in sea ice will open up commercial vessel lanes, which could reduce the viability of subsistence fishing, according to Danielson, as <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a> reported. It also could change the migratory patterns of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/whales" target="_self">whales</a>, walruses, and other species that migrate between the Chukchi and Bering Seas.</p><p>"The time of the year that some hunting activities can take place may need to change," Danielson said to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>. "I think we've seen some indications of that already. And the species that people are hunting and fishing for may change as well."</p>
<p>The Chukchi and Bering Seas lifecycles are driven by seasonal changes in sea ice and in water temperatures.</p><p>Whales, walruses and other species move southwards into the Bering Sea in the winter months when the water freezes over. Whales and walruses tend to move south into the Bering Sea during the winter. Then snow melt and algae growth in the spring allows <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine species</a> to flourish in summer, providing ample food for those large mammals, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/alaska-marine-ecosystem-shift-climate-change-scientists-1488753" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported.</p><p>However, the warmer temperatures mean some animals are staying in the north and foregoing their migration down to the Bering Sea. The changes in temperatures mean many of the foods that large sea mammals rely on are dwindling.</p><p>Spotted seal pups seemed to suffer terribly, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/alaska-marine-ecosystem-shift-climate-change-scientists-1488753" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. They appeared thinner and smaller than normal. Ribbon seals, similarly, appeared to have rapidly declining birth rates and many more carcasses washing ashore in 2018 — about five times the annual average from 2014 to 2017.</p>
<p>The researchers also noted a change in the type of fish found in Alaska's waters, noting that pacific cod are appearing further north and have the potential to disturb native Arctic cod population, according to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>.<br></p><p>"They're a focal point through which energy flows to a lot of different components," said Danielson to <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/02/24/dramatic-ocean-changes-are-coming-a-couple-decades-too-early-scientists-say/" target="_blank">Alaska Public Media</a>. "For instance, they're eaten by the seals. They're eaten directly by people. The seals are eaten by people and polar bears."</p><p>"You can be fairly confident in attributing these types of unusual events to human-induced causes," Danielson added.</p>
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Belugas Are Dying off in Alaska and Oil and Gas Operations Are to Blame, Says Lawsuit
03 February
Animals
A beluga whale swims under an iceberg in Alaska. Design Pics Inc / First Light / Getty Images Plus
Two environmental groups made a formal announcement that they will file a lawsuit to protect endangered beluga whales whose numbers have plummeted recently, as the AP reported.
<p>The suit aims to void permits allowed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that opened up oil and gas exploration in Cook Inlet in southern Alaska. The suit alleges that NOAA violated the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">Endangered Species</a> Act by issuing the permits without protecting Cook Island belugas. The law requires the formal 60-day notice before the agency can be sued, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/52515018c441edfe4ad1ab630dae0801" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>The Center for Biological Diversity and Cook Inletkeeper teamed up to send notice that they will sue NOAA.</p><p>NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a disturbing new population estimate last week that showed whale numbers are far lower than previous estimates and their numbers are dropping rapidly, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-oil-belugas/environmentalists-invoke-belugas-in-effort-to-halt-alaska-oil-exploration-idUSKBN1ZV36Z" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>The NMFS report estimated that only 279 beluga whales remain in Cook Inlet, a steep decline from the nearly 1,300 that lived there in 1979. The population decline has accelerated to an annual rate of 2.3 percent over the last decade, which is four times faster than previous estimates, according to NMFS, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alaska-oil-belugas/environmentalists-invoke-belugas-in-effort-to-halt-alaska-oil-exploration-idUSKBN1ZV36Z" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>Cook Inlet runs almost 200 miles from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska. It supplies energy for the south-central part of the state. The industrial activities there threaten beluga whales, which swim there and feast on salmon and other fish, according to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alaska-oil-drilling-beluga-whale-lawsuit-noaa-a9312856.html?utm_source=reddit.com" target="_blank">The Independent</a>.</p><p>The Center for Biological Diversity said these "daunting" numbers mean exploration planned by Hillcorp Alaska needs to stop immediately, as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alaska-oil-drilling-beluga-whale-lawsuit-noaa-a9312856.html?utm_source=reddit.com" target="_blank">The Independent</a> reported.</p><p>The plaintiffs are demanding a new assessment of oil and gas exploration since the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump administration</a> used higher, inaccurate beluga whale numbers when it gave a permit to Hillcorp Alaska. The permit allows the petroleum company to "take" beluga whales as part of its operations. "Take" is a nebulous term that allows the company to harass and harm whales. The environmental groups want a guarantee that Cook Inlet belugas can recover from any of Hillcorp Alaska's operations, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/52515018c441edfe4ad1ab630dae0801" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>"Since we pressed for listing the Cook Inlet Beluga whale as endangered in 2008, the drive for corporate profits and complacent government bureaucrats have conspired to stifle progress for this dwindling stock," said Bob Shavelson, advocacy director for Cook Inletkeeper, in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-launched-to-save-alaskas-cook-inlet-beluga-whales-from-harmful-oil-exploration-2020-01-31/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Hilcorp should do the right thing and abandon its plans for new drilling in Cook Inlet."</p>
<p>Last summer, the Trump administration loosened environmental regulations that allowed for new mining, oil and gas <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling">drilling</a> where protected species live, according to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alaska-oil-drilling-beluga-whale-lawsuit-noaa-a9312856.html?utm_source=reddit.com" target="_blank">The Independent</a>.<br></p><p>"The tragic decline of these lovely little whales spotlights the risk of allowing oil exploration in their habitat," said Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-launched-to-save-alaskas-cook-inlet-beluga-whales-from-harmful-oil-exploration-2020-01-31/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "If we're going to save these belugas, the Trump administration must cancel permission for the oil industry to use seismic blasting and pile driving in Cook Inlet. These animals are hanging on by a thread, and we can't let them be hurt even more."</p>The groups said that seismic blasting used in exploration and deep-sea mining causes blasts heard miles away. The blasts can register up to 250 decibels. For reference, standing next to a jackhammer is 100 decibels. Those underwater blasts can cause hearing loss in marine mammals, severely disrupt communication between pods, disturb feeding and breeding grounds, and reduce their ability to catch fish, according to the environmental groups, as <a href="https://apnews.com/52515018c441edfe4ad1ab630dae0801" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported.
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The common murre population in Alaska has been decimated by an ocean heatwave. Linda Burek / iStock / Getty Images Plus
An expanse of uncommonly warm seawater in the Pacific Ocean created by a marine heatwave led to a mass die-off of one million seabirds, scientists have found.
<p>According to a study <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087#sec012" target="_blank">published in PLOS One</a> by the University of Washington, the marine heatwave began in 2013, and grew stronger between 2015-2016 due to irregular conditions from the weather phenomenon El Niño.</p><p>The heatwave created a patch of much warmer seawater in the northeastern Pacific that stretched for 1,000 miles — parts of which reached temperatures 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit higher than usual, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/world/blob-seabird-study-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p><p>Researchers termed it "the blob."</p>
<p>As the blob reached its peak between mid-2015 and 2016, more than 62,000 common murres — a species of seabird that feeds on small fish and is common up and down the west coast of North America — washed up dead on the shores of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/16/hot-blob-ocean-seabirds-killed-new-zealand-north-america" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>The researchers believe that the murres likely died of starvation after the blob increased competition for the small fish they feed on, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51140869" target="_blank">The BBC reported</a>. And because most birds that die over the ocean never wash ashore, the researchers believe the die-off reached closer to an unprecedented one million common murres.</p>
<p>Larger fish such as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a>, cod and halibut rely on the same prey as the murres. But since fish are cold-blooded and can't self-regulate their body temperature, the warmer waters <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/toxic-seafood-climate-change-overfishing-2639740959.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" target="_self">boosted their metabolic rate</a> and the amount of energy they <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fish-size-climate-2479149123.html" target="_self">needed</a> for survival. These conditions required the larger fish to eat more than normal, reducing the availability of prey for the murres, which typically need to eat the equivalent of half their body weight per day.</p><p>The resulting die-off was among the largest on record, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087#sec012" target="_blank">the researchers said</a>. Most of the birds washed ashore in Alaska, where they were found in densities reaching 4,600 carcasses per kilometer along part of the state's southern coast.</p>
<p>The murre population was so affected that by 2016, 12 breeding colonies had failed to produce any chicks and the population still hasn't replenished, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/16/hot-blob-ocean-seabirds-killed-new-zealand-north-america" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>"It remains to be seen when (or whether) murre populations in Alaska will recover from the heatwave in light of predicted global warming trends and the associated likelihood of more frequent heatwaves," the researchers said. According to <a href="https://report.ipcc.ch/srocc/pdf/SROCC_SPM_Approved.pdf" target="_blank">the United Nations</a>, climate change is projected to make marine heatwaves more frequent.</p><p>The University of Washington team has already <a href="http://king5.com/article/weather/the-blob-is-back/281-f7fdf9b2-c565-47ca-86f3-342bd2a8a365" target="_blank">found another marine heatwave</a> developing off the coast of Washington, while another closer to New Zealand has reached 4,000 square miles and can be detected from space, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/27/world/new-zealand-hot-ocean-water-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p>
<p>The blob caused die-offs in several other animal populations as well, including sea lions, baleen whales and tufted puffins. These die-offs were likely due in part to a drop in the populations of plankton that feed many organisms in the food chain, as the warmer water has less oxygen and essential nutrients to support life, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/16/blob-hot-water-killed-million-seabirds-pacific-2015-and-2016/4491618002/" target="_blank">USA Today reported</a>.</p><p>The warmer temperatures also spawned the largest harmful algal bloom in recorded history, which contributed to the die-offs and led to significant financial losses for fisheries in the affected area — though none of the losses reached the severity of the murre die-off.</p><p>"The magnitude and scale of this failure has no precedent," lead author John Piatt, a research biologist and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington, said in a <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/01/15/the-blob-food-supply-squeeze-to-blame-for-largest-seabird-die-off/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "It was astonishing and alarming, and a red-flag warning about the tremendous impact sustained ocean warming can have on the marine ecosystem."</p>
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