Five people reported walrus, but all five probably saw the same 

 animal since the reports were all from Shell platforms A and C. Thirty- 

 five individuals reported seeing seals or sea lions. Usually these 

 animals were alone although occasionally they appeared in pairs. The 

 seals came in close to the platform but did not stay in the area for 

 any length of time. Two individuals reported seeing a sea otter. 



Sighting Cards 



Twenty-three sighting cards were mailed in. One card was a 

 sighting of a sea otter. It was seen around the Anchor Point area 

 which is the lower Cook Inlet area, and therefore not directly usable 

 in this study. Many species of animals were seen in the lower Cook, 

 around Anchor Point, but these animals don't usually move far enough up 

 the Cook Inlet to be seen by the oil industry personnel on the rigs. 



The twenty-two cards reported beluga whales in the range of two to 

 a thousand animals. Two of these cards had pictures of beluga whales 

 attached. Eleven people reported 20 or less belugas. Three cards 

 reported between 20 and 50 whales, six cards recorded 50-200 and the 

 last two cards estimated the animals to number around a thousand. The 

 estimated distance of the whales from the platforms ranged from 30 feet 

 to "the other side of the inlet" with most reports at 150-300 yards. 

 No unusual behavior was reported. 



Discussion 



Study Area I: Santa Barbara Channel 



One of the major difficulties encountered was the resistance of oil 

 companys' management and employees toward a project with implications 

 of environmental protection involving their company and work. Although 

 they are certainly in favor of protecting the environment, the primary 

 objective of the oil companies is production and the major concern of 

 their employees is job security. Extensive and detailed explanation of 

 the purpose of the project was necessary to obtain permission from the 

 oil company management to interview their employees. Similarly, at 

 each interview some time had to be spent on reassuring the persons to 

 be interviewed that this project would not jeopardize their company or 

 their job in any way. Once the oil worker was convinced that his job 

 was not threatened the interview could be conducted. 



Most people involved with off-shore work have personal accounts of 

 marine mammal sightings and are more than willing to share these 

 anecdotes. However, because they were not trained observers, these 

 people usually could not accurately recall important parameters, such 

 as distance, direction, etc. Very few have had any training in 

 identifying individual species of marine mammals. Therefore, usually 

 reference to size presented the only identification clues. 



C-23 



