Resource Development Along Coasts and on the Ocean Floor: 

 Potential Conflicts with Marine Bird Conservation 



by 



Donald E. McKnight 



Alaska Department of Fish and Game 



Subport Building 

 Juneau, Alaska 99801 



and 

 C. Eugene Knoder 



National Audubon Society 

 Lakewood, Colorado 



Abstract 



Although development of hard mineral resources, expansion of the timber 

 industry, and resultant increases in human pressures along the North Pacific and 

 Arctic coasts will ultimately adversely affect northern marine bird populations, 

 current and proposed activities of the petroleum industry are the most imme- 

 diate threat to marine birds. The Federal Government's recently announced 

 plans for oil and gas leasing on the Pacific outer continental shelf eclipse the sig- 

 nificance of North Slope and Cook Inlet oil developments. Within a few years, 

 onshore storage facilities and supertankers plying these waters will undoubtedly 

 result in widespread chronic and localized catastrophic contamination of north- 

 ern marine ecosystems. 



Coastal and offshore waters south of the reaches of the seasonal ice pack are 

 tremendously productive, supporting a diverse wealth of bird life throughout the 

 year. Because these ecosystems are relatively stable and the impact of temporal 

 oscillations on the physical environment is not as great as in the Arctic, birds in 

 these areas are probably least susceptible to man's influence on a long-term 

 basis. 



Avifaunal associations of the Arctic are less diverse and have shorter food 

 chains than more southerly ones; consequently they are more susceptible to envi- 

 ronmental perturbations. Slow growth and maturation rates of arctic species and 

 resultant prolonged population recovery periods further aggravate this 

 situation. 



Available knowledge of northern seabirds and their environmental require- 

 ments is in inverse relation to the latitude at which they are found and to the eco- 

 logical stability of the ecosystems involved. Arctic bird associations and their 

 fragile environments are least understood, but are doubtless the most vulnerable 

 to the detrimental effects of man-caused environmental degradation. The 

 paucity of knowledge about them limits the possibility of predicting the conse- 

 quences of petrochemical exploitation and thereby safeguarding against poten- 

 tial problems. Existing technology and support system capabilities of the oil 

 industry are more poorly defined for arctic areas, further compounding this prob- 

 lem. Regardless of information amassed in the future and precautionary 

 measures taken during exploitation of arctic petroleum reserves, the potential 

 for disastrous and perhaps irrecoverable losses to northern marine bird species 

 and populations is great. Losses of major magnitude could appreciably alter the 

 productivity of northern marine ecosystems. 



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