CHAPTER VII 



OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND 

 GAS DEVELOPMENT 



Activities and events associated with exploration and 

 development of offshore oil and gas resources may have 

 direct and indirect effects on marine mammals and the ecosystems 

 of which they are a part. The Bureau of Land Management 

 and, more recently, the Minerals Management Service (which 

 was created early in 1982 by combining parts of the Bureau 

 of Land Management and the Geological Survey) have been 

 delegated responsibility by the Secretary of the Interior 

 under the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, as amended, 

 for predicting, mitigating, and detecting the adverse 

 effects of OCS oil and gas development. The National 

 Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service 

 are responsible, under the authority of the Marine Mammal 

 Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, for reviewing 

 proposed actions and advising the Minerals Management Service 

 of measures that may be needed to assure that proposed 

 actions will not be to the disadvantage of marine mammals 

 and other wildlife. The Commission reviews the relevant 

 policies and activities of these agencies and recommends 

 actions that appear necessary to conserve marine mammals and 

 their habitats. The Commission's activities in this regard 

 during 1982 are discussed below. 



Proposed OCS Lease Sale #71 

 Diapir Field, Alaska 



On 24 November 1981, the Bureau of Land Management 

 distributed and requested comments on the Draft Environmental 

 Impact Statement for OCS Lease Sale #71, consisting of 372 

 blocks (approximately 1.8 million acres) of submerged lands 

 in the Beaufort Sea, 5 to 60 kilometers offshore. 



The DEIS noted, among other things, that: bowhead 

 whales, polar bears, and other marine mammals could be 

 affected by exploration and development activities in the 

 proposed lease sale area; new information on bowhead migrations 



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