Oil interest drives search for rare right whales

Scientists checking if testing, drilling off Alaska would disturb habitat

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Scientists are searching this summer for one of the most precariously positioned animals on the planet


The problem is that the area where the whales have shown up in surprising numbers in recent years overlaps an area the federal government earlier this year approved for oil and gas development. Lease sales in the southeastern Bering Sea are proposed for 2011.

It is an unfortunate juxtaposition, said Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which is fighting the federal government’s five-year oil and gas development plan for the Bering Sea. He said that it is no surprise that the U.S. Minerals Management Service is funding the whale survey.

“Their existence is so tenuous as it is,” Cummings said. “Any new research is completely welcomed. The unfortunate irony of it is that the impetus to do this research is propelled in part by the Department of the Interior proposal to open up right whale critical habitat to oil and gas leasing.”

AP