186 



D. E. MC KNIGHT AND C. E. KNODER 



ling Canada goose (B. c. minima), Aleutian 

 Canada goose (B. c. leucopareia), and Aleutian 

 common teal (Anas crecca nimia) nest only in 

 Alaska coastal areas (Bartonek et al. 1971). 

 Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula an- 

 nually hosts the entire population of black 

 brant, Branta nigricans (Hansen and Nelson 

 1957), and many other waterfowl, seabird, and 

 shorebird species nest or live in this region in 

 numbers important to their worldwide 

 welfare. 



Current and Planned 

 Resource Development 



The immense nonrenewable resource wealth 

 of Alaska and other arctic regions has re- 

 mained virtually unrecognized or unexploited 

 until recently because of the availability of 

 these resources in more accessible locations. 

 As supplies have diminished or been ex- 

 hausted elsewhere and demands have in- 

 creased, however, it has become economically 

 feasible or necessary to tap supplies in less-ac- 

 cessible regions. For this reason, the petro- 

 leum industry has recently expanded its ex- 

 ploratory efforts in the far North with well- 

 known success. Deposits of metallic ores, 

 coal, and other raw materials to feed industry 

 have likewise been discovered and plans de- 

 vised for their extraction and sale. Pressed 

 with decreased availability of commercial tim- 

 ber elsewhere, the logging industry has simi- 

 larly begun to broaden its efforts into Alaska. 

 Expansion of industrial activities into the 

 North is proceeding at a rapidly accelerating 

 pace, and these industries, their associated 

 support industries, and expanded human 

 populations are having and will continue to 

 have unprecedented impact on these marine 

 ecosystems, including their avifauna. 



Petroleum Development 



The existence of potentially marketable dil 

 and gas deposits in Alaska has been recog- 

 nized since the early 1900's, but it was not 

 until the Swanson River, Alaska, oil field was 

 discovered in 1957 and later developed that 

 the Arctic entered the modern era of oil de- 

 velopment (McKnight and Hiliker 1970). This 



field and offshore fields in the Upper Cook 

 Inlet basin have been producing oil for nearly 

 a decade. The discovery of petroleum reserves 

 on Alaska's North Slope and Canada's Mac- 

 kenzie River Delta is common knowledge, and 

 a pipeline has been constructed to transport 

 Alaska oil to a tanker facility at Valdez in 

 Prince William Sound. Alternative proposals 

 to pipe North Slope natural gas along the 

 existing corridor to a facility in Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound or to build a new pipeline to take 

 this gas to existing fields, and a planned pipe- 

 line on the Mackenzie River Delta and south 

 through Canada, are being considered. Con- 

 struction of a gas liquefaction facility in 

 Prince William Sound and tanker traffic 

 through the Sound and the Gulf of Alaska are 

 potential ramifications of an Alaska gas pipe- 

 line. 



As McKnight and Hiliker (1970) and Barto- 

 nek et al. (1971) pointed out, the greatest 

 potential problem for marine bird populations 

 from North Slope oil will be associated with 

 the operations of the Alyeska Pipeline sys- 

 tem's terminal at Valdez. Oil storage and 

 ship-loading facilities at this port and heavy 

 tanker traffic through Prince William Sound 

 represent a pollution source that could result 

 in significant seabird and waterfowl mortali- 

 ties. Certainly, development of gas liquefac- 

 tion facilities in the Sound, with inherent in- 

 creases in human populations and tanker 

 traffic, would compound this potential 

 problem. 



Although future impacts from existing 

 petrochemical developments are cause for 

 concern, the Federal Government's recently 

 announced plans for oil and gas leasing on the 

 Pacific outer continental shelf (Fig. 1) eclipse 

 the significance of North Slope and Cook Inlet 

 oil developments. It now appears the Gulf of 

 Alaska is the most favorable area of the outer 

 continental shelf for oil and gas production 

 (Council on Environmental Quality 1974). 

 This area, covering more than 10.3 million ha, 

 has already been subjected to extensive seis- 

 mic investigations, and estimates of its undis- 

 covered, economically recoverable crude oil 

 and natural gas resources range from 3 to 25 

 billion barrels and 15 to 30 trillion cubic feet, 

 respectively (Council on Environmental 

 Quality 1974). 



