Chapter IX 



OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS 

 EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT 



Exploration and development of coastal and off- 

 shore oil, gas, and hard mineral resources may ad- 

 versely affect marine mammals and their habitat. 

 Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the 

 Department of the Interior's Minerals Management 

 Service is responsible for assessing, detecting, and 

 mitigating the adverse effects of these activities in 

 offshore waters beyond state jurisdiction. Under the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered 

 Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 and the Fish and Wildlife Service are responsible for 

 reviewing proposed actions and advising the Minerals 

 Management Service and other agencies of measures 

 needed to ensure that those actions will not have 

 adverse effects on marine mammals or endangered or 

 threatened species. The Commission reviews relevant 

 policies and activities of these agencies and recom- 

 mends actions that appear necessary to protect marine 

 mammals and their habitats. The Commission's 

 activities in this regard in 1995 are discussed below. 



Section 101(a)(5) of the Marine Mammal Protec- 

 tion Act directs the Secretaries of the Interior and 

 Commerce to authorize, in certain instances, the 

 unintentional taking of small numbers of marine 

 mammals by U.S. citizens incidental to activities other 

 than commercial fishing operations. Such small-take 

 authorizations are sometimes required for activities 

 related to offshore oil and gas exploration and devel- 

 opment. These are discussed in Chapter XI. 



Proposed Offshore Lease Sales 



The Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation 

 with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, reviews 



and comments on environmental impact statements 

 and other matters concerning proposed outer continen- 

 tal shelf oil, gas, and hard mineral lease sales. 

 During 1995 the Commission commented to the 

 Minerals Management Service on draft environmental 

 impact statements concerning proposed lease sales in 

 Cook Inlet, the Beaufort Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The Commission also provided comments in response 

 to a call for information concerning additional pro- 

 posed lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. 



Oil & Gas Lease Sale #149, Cook Inlet 



Proposed lease sale #149, tentatively scheduled for 

 summer 1996, involves 402 blocks (approximately 2 

 million acres) of submerged lands in Cook Inlet. On 

 13 January 1995 the Minerals Management Service 

 issued a draft environmental impact statement on the 

 proposed sale and distributed it to the Marine Mam- 

 mal Commission and others for review. 



The draft statement indicated that 15 species of 

 non-endangered marine mammals are resident or 

 occur seasonally in the lower Cook Inlet. Of these 

 species, the northern fur seal, the harbor seal, and the 

 sea otter are the most common and most abundant. In 

 addition, seven marine mammal species that occur in 

 the planning area are listed as endangered or threat- 

 ened under the Endangered Species Act. The species 

 are the Steller sea lion, blue whale, fin whale, hump- 

 back whale, right whale, sei whale, and sperm whale. 



The draft concluded that, with respect to non- 

 endangered or threatened marine mammal species, any 

 noise, disturbance, or habitat alteration resulting from 



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