FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                            May 12, 2008

CONTACT: Dorothy Childers or Kelly Harrell

Alaska Marine Conservation Council

(907) 277-5357

The federal government has provided mere days of notice to the public on important meetings being held this week in Anchorage and Unalaska on the critical topic of offshore oil and gas leasing in the fish-rich waters of Bristol Bay and the southeast Bering Sea. The Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) is calling attention to the unacceptably short warning provided for these meetings and is requesting that additional meetings be held.

The federal Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) scoping meetings are intended to provide members of the public the opportunity to ask questions, make comments and learn more about the proposal to drill amongst the world’s largest salmon runs in 2011. Just a week prior to the meetings, no notice had been provided by MMS to the public that they were even taking place.

 “The extremely short window of notice on these vital forums for the public to gain knowledge and comment on offshore drilling in the nation’s largest fishing grounds should be a red flag for everyone. The agency has an appalling lack of concern for public participation in decisions that will affect some of the most valuable, renewable resources in Alaska and the world,” said Kelly Harrell, Friends of Bristol Bay Coordinator for AMCC.   

The area scheduled to be leased is the very same 5.6 million acre block of productive ocean previously sold and bought back due to the extreme risks posed to the region’s ecologically, economically and culturally important fisheries and marine life.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time in the renewed attempt to drill in Bristol Bay that the federal government has culled opportunities for public input.  In 2006, a notice for hearings on the 5-year offshore oil and gas lease sale program -which placed Bristol Bay into federal leasing schedule-  was published in the Federal Register the day after the hearing took place in Unalaska and just days before the hearings in other potentially affected communities.[1]

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) has sent a letter to MMS urging them to hold additional meetings and also requesting an extension of the written comment deadline. The current deadline for comments on the lease sale is set for July 7- at the height of the salmon fishing season in Bristol Bay.

The letter states that if MMS is proposing to lease an area that lies amid some of the most productive waters for fish, marine mammals and seabirds in Alaska, it simply must do a much better job at allowing for input by the fishing industry, subsistence harvesters, residents of fishing communities, and others that wish to participate in the process.   

“The public is being given few, if any, meaningful opportunities to have a say in this tremendous decision that could affect Alaska’s fisheries and coastal communities far into the future. The process and the agency are broken right now and we cannot allow leasing to proceed under these circumstances. Protections for Bristol Bay’s waters that existed for so long should be restored,” said Harrell. 

Information on Scoping Meetings:

What: The Minerals Management Service, the federal agency in charge of offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters, is holding public scoping meetings on the North Aleutian Basin Sale 214 in Anchorage and Unalaska next week.

Scoping is the first step in a multi-year process by which the federal government will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Bristol Bay and southeast Bering Sea lease sale.  The meeting and associated comment period provides members of the public- including potentially affected fishermen and residents of coastal communities, and others-  the opportunity to ask MMS questions, express support or opposition for the lease sale and also to comment on what types of information and impacts should be considered in preparing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the sale. Members of the public can also attend just to listen and learn.

When:  Anchorage- Tuesday, May 13, 2008        7:00-9:00 pm

            Unalaska- Thursday, May 15, 2008          7:00-9:00 pm    

Where: Anchorage, MMS Building at 3801 Centerpoint Drive Directions at:

http://www.mms.gov/alaska/aboutak/locate/locate.htm.

Unalaska, City Council Chambers

For more information from MMS, contact:                               

Robin Cacy                                                      

Minerals Management Service                                                   

Alaska OCS Region

907-334-5208

1-800-764-2627

Attachment:

Alaska Marine Conservation Council Letter Requesting for Scoping Extension to MMS (pdf)