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Whales' Presence In Alaska Signals Warming's Effects

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By DAN JOLING, The Associated Press

Published: November 11, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Endangered humpback and fin whales swam hundreds of miles north of their usual habitat this summer in what environmentalists say is another sign of the effects of global warming and the shifting Arctic ecosystem.

Humpbacks were spotted over the summer in the Beaufort Sea east of Barrow, the northernmost community in the United States, and last year in the Chukchi Sea, west of the Beaufort and north of the Bering Strait, said Robin Cacy, a spokeswoman for the federal Minerals Management Service.

The agency oversees lease sales for offshore petroleum drilling in federal waters, including sales scheduled for 2008 in the Chukchi Sea and 2009 in the Beaufort Sea.

Some of the whales were spotted by observers involved with the oil industry, others by observers involved with barge traffic.

Cacy also said fin whales were detected this summer by acoustic monitoring in the Chukchi Sea, more than 300 miles north of their normal range.

Both humpback and fin whales normally stay south of the Bering Strait in Alaska waters.

Environmental groups are calling for more study of the endangered animals' habits before industrial activity is allowed to expand off Alaska's northern shores.

No one was expecting humpbacks near the activity connected to Outer Continental Shelf lease sales, said Brad Smith, a protective resources biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"We didn't anticipate that they'd been encountered in any of the OCS exploration activity that we're doing this year," Smith said.

Minerals service spokesman Gary Strasburg said a sighting of an endangered species in a new area would not mean an immediate change in how the agency regulates petroleum exploration.

It will take more time to determine whether the presence of humpbacks is a trend, and if so, for the agency determine the appropriate response, he said.

Brendan Cummings, ocean programs director for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said the humpback sightings may indicate a recovering population expanding its range - or desperate animals in search of food.

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