The critically endangered western gray whale population has only 100 individuals left. They are slowly starving to death because Shell Oil's Sakhalin-2 project is driving them off their feeding grounds. Noise levels due to construction are at an unacceptable level. The company has been warned of the problem by behavior experts but the company will let the whale's survival interfere with its construction schedule. Sightings of thin or emaciated whales have occurred since construction began according to the World Wildlife Fund A WWF field group that observes the activity reported that the grey whales have apparently abandoned the Piltun spit since the arrival of a barge bearing the upper parts of the Piltun platform (photo) at the end of June. Vessels involved in the construction work may emit low frequency noise that interferes with the whales normal feeding activity. The company had promised ecologists that the noise would be abated prior to the whales arrival in mid June, but it failed to keep that promise. The Okhotsk-Korean population including pregnant mothers and calves only feed in a small area of Russia's Okhotsk Sea along the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island. In a company response to WWF, Sakhalin Energy Investment said that it was following the noise abatement criteria in its Marine Mammal Protection Plan and was "fully committed" to protecting the feeding area.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
On the Road to Extinction
The critically endangered western gray whale population has only 100 individuals left. They are slowly starving to death because Shell Oil's Sakhalin-2 project is driving them off their feeding grounds. Noise levels due to construction are at an unacceptable level. The company has been warned of the problem by behavior experts but the company will let the whale's survival interfere with its construction schedule. Sightings of thin or emaciated whales have occurred since construction began according to the World Wildlife Fund A WWF field group that observes the activity reported that the grey whales have apparently abandoned the Piltun spit since the arrival of a barge bearing the upper parts of the Piltun platform (photo) at the end of June. Vessels involved in the construction work may emit low frequency noise that interferes with the whales normal feeding activity. The company had promised ecologists that the noise would be abated prior to the whales arrival in mid June, but it failed to keep that promise. The Okhotsk-Korean population including pregnant mothers and calves only feed in a small area of Russia's Okhotsk Sea along the northeast coast of Sakhalin Island. In a company response to WWF, Sakhalin Energy Investment said that it was following the noise abatement criteria in its Marine Mammal Protection Plan and was "fully committed" to protecting the feeding area.