FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2007                                                                             

(Anchorage, Alaska) – The Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) today hailed the introduction of legislation in Congress that would permanently prohibit oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

Titled the “Bristol Bay Protection Act,” the bill comes in response to mounting concerns over the prospect of permitting offshore oil and gas development in Bristol Bay.Congressmen Jay Inslee of Washington and Maurice Hinchey of New York are the principal sponsors of the measure.

Bristol Bay in the southeastern Bering Sea is among the most ecologically sensitive and important marine ecosystems in the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf.

Working with a diverse array of fishing interests, native associations, tribal governments,and conservationists, AMCC has been leading efforts to restore protection of Bristol Bay since both congressional and presidential moratoria on development here have been lifted. In January, President Bush removed a long-standing executive ban on offshoredrilling in Bristol Bay that was the last layer of protection for the region.

“This bill marks the first step on the path to permanent protection of Bristol Bay, and none too soon,” said Eric Siy, executive director of the AMCC. “Unless Congress acts to safeguard the vital resources now at stake, draft plans to open Bristol Bay to leasing will soon become a reality.”

Bristol Bay forms a large portion of the North Aleutian Basin Planning Area that is included in the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) Proposed 5-Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2007-2012. Following a 60-day review by Congress that is expected to begin soon, the program may be formally released sometime this summer, opening the way for leases MMS has proposed in 2010 and 2012.

“The pressing need to protect Bristol Bay is as important economically as it isenvironmentally,” Siy said. An estimated 40 percent of the total domestic fish catch in the U.S. comes from the southeastern Bering Sea. The area targeted for oil and gas leasing overlaps with important habitat and fishing grounds for pollock, cod, red king crab, halibut and salmon – fisheries that generate more than $2 billion dollars annually. Bristol Bay also supports world-renowned seabird and marine mammal populations as well as a number of threatened and endangered species, including the highly endangered North Pacific right whale.

Environmental Impact Statements by MMS have predicted at least one major oil spill as well as numerous smaller spills should development in Bristol Bay be allowed. Recovery of spilled oil in the rough sea conditions, ice, strong tides and currents that characterize Bristol Bay is unfeasible due to inadequate clean-up technology.

“Rather than putting the region’s renewable economy and rich biodiversity at grave risk of permanent harm, Bristol Bay needs permanent protection,” said Siy. “Congress now has the opportunity and an obligation to future generations to act, before it’s too late.”

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