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The NewsRoom
Release: #3691
Date: June 26, 2007
Interagency Study of Endangered Right Whales Planned
$5 Million
Study to Begin in the Bering Sea This Summer
WASHINGTON–
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service
(MMS) and the National Marine Mammal Laboratory of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have agreed to
collaboratively study the distribution, relative abundance, and
habitat use of the endangered North Pacific right whales in the
Bering Sea, north of the Aleutian Islands. The $5 million research
program will begin this summer and continue over the following
three-and-one-half years.
Associate
Director of Offshore Energy and Minerals Management, Chris Oynes explained that
“this is an important part of MMS’s commitment to considering an oil
and gas lease sale in 2011 in this area. Once MMS has collected
sufficient background environmental information and the data on the
right whale is obtained, MMS will be in a sound position to make
informed decisions about potential leasing in the area.”
Field studies
directed at the North Pacific right whale will use methods and
advanced equipment proven successful in earlier studies of the right
whales in the North Atlantic. Visual observations will be made from
aircraft and ships, and whale sounds will be detected via shipboard
listening devices to help locate the whales for tagging and for
long-term monitoring of their distribution and abundance. Over the
course of the project, several right whales will be tagged with
satellite and acoustic tracking devices so that researchers can
determine the locations and dive behavior of the whales in real-time
over long distances. During the tagging operations, small tissue
samples will be taken from the whales to allow genetic
identification of individual whales through DNA genotyping, and to
study whale diet and types of pollutants resident in their bodies.
Samples of copepods--planktonic animals commonly eaten by the
whales--will be taken to further study the whales’ diet and to
investigate anthropogenic compounds that may be in the whales’ prey.
Once abundant
during the summer throughout the eastern North Pacific and Bering
Sea, the North Pacific right whale now is one of the rarest stocks
of baleen (filter-feeding) whales anywhere in the world. Little is
known of their abundance, movements and current habitat use. Because
of its endangered status under the Endangered Species Act, the North
Pacific right whale is among the highest priorities for recovery
efforts.
A planned oil
and gas lease sale in the southern Bering Sea will not be held until
2011 to allow sufficient time for the collection of the necessary
environmental data on all marine organisms living full-time or
part-time in the area that could be adversely affected by offshore
operations. Under this schedule, exploratory drilling and related
operations would not begin until 2012 or later. The cooperative
research on the right whales is expected to provide important
information to make the required environmental impact assessment of
the proposed oil and gas development. MMS will also work with the
National Marine Fisheries Service and other interested parties in
protecting living resources while facilitating energy resource
development.
Media Contact:
Nicolette Nye 703-787-1011
Robin Cacy 907-334-5208
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for
America
U.S. Department of the Interior
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