place, though, the BLM will have to complete and circulate the environ- 

 mental impact statement they are currently working on for this area. A 

 second sale is scheduled to be held in December of 1980. 



In May of 1976, BLM tentatively selected 564 tracts totalling about 

 3.17 million acres for leasing in the western Gulf (Fig. 7). The list 

 of 564 was picked from an original department call that included 2,915 

 tracts covering about 16 million acres of which industry had nominated 

 12.8 million acres. The selected tracts lie in an area south and east 

 of Kodiak Island and southwest of Montague Island. They range from 4 to 

 115 miles offshore in an area about 430 miles long and 60 miles wide in 

 waters from 90 to 900 feet deep. 63 



Alaskan officials submitted negative nominations for three areas 

 they considered environmentally sensitive — Albatross Bank, Marmot Flats 

 and Portlock Bank because of the presence of tanner and king crab, 

 shrimp, and marine mammals. 61 * They asked for the exclusion of these 

 areas from the lease sale; areas that comprised about 25 percent of the 

 original lands called for by the Bureau of Land Management. 65 BLM's 

 tentative selections, however, included tracts from within these three 

 areas . 6 6 



State officials are particularly concerned about potential environ- 

 mental impacts and marine use conflicts resulting from a lease sale in 

 the western Gulf of Alaska. 0CS development in this region will endanger 

 "the most intensive and valuable shellfish fisheries in Alaskan waters" 

 as well as major populations of herring, salmon, seabirds and marine 

 mammals. State officials are worried about the extreme seismic risk 



46 



