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Defenders in Action: Bush Push for More Offshore Drilling in Alaska's Sensitive Habitat
One of the country's most sustainable remaining marine ecosystems is now at risk following the Interior Department's move to allow offshore oil and gas drilling throughout Alaska's Bristol Bay by 2011.
The department in April solicited oil-company interest in drilling in the 5.6-million-acre north Aleutian basin, putting marine mammals and migratory birds at risk. It could also undermine commercial fishing throughout the region. Bristol Bay's sustainable commercial fishing industry generates more than $2 billion a year in revenues, supporting fishermen throughout Alaska and across the west coast.
"Through thousands of years of careful stewardship, Alaska's indigenous peoples have maintained the healthy web of life in Bristol Bay," says Richard Charter, a consultant for Defenders of Wildlife. "Now the Bush administration is encouraging the oil industry to submit maps showing where they want to drill offshore. This is a tragic and high-risk decision destined ultimately to destroy one of America's only remaining sustainable marine ecosystems."
Hoping to permanently protect this "biological wonderland," Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) have introduced the Bristol Bay Protection Act in Congress, and Defenders is working with native, fishing and conservation groups in southwest Alaska to convince federal decisionmakers to pass the legislation.
For more information, please visitwww.defenders.org/energy.
