Filed under: Green Daily, Pacific Region
"Pesky whales. They just have to have their feeding grounds right where we want to put another oil platform. Well, too bad for them."
That would seem to be the attitude over at the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company offices, of which Shell is the largest partner after Russia's Gazprom. The whales in question are of the critically endangered Western North Pacific gray variety, genetically distinct from the more prolific Eastern type. Thought to number just 130 individuals in all, the group's future is dependent on just 30 breeding females as well as the feeding grounds off of the Sakhalin Islands where they bulk up on crustaceans prior to traveling to their breeding area.
Unfortunately for the whales, those shallow waters are also the location Shell and its buddies want to build a new oil platform to complement two others in the area. This despite their own reports that state that the spot is not suitable, since the clay in the earthquake-prone seabed is unstable and the existing platforms preclude the need for a third (PDF).
A painful insult of seismic surveys will be conducted this summer to establish the exact coordinates for the injurious platform. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) will monitor the situation as it unfolds but it appears no one is able or willing to stop the construction plan. We look forward to the day when oil companies become extinct. (And yes, we know the quote in the picture should be attributed to a dolphin. Deal with it.)
[Source: WWF | Source Image: marlin harms - C.C. License 2.0 ]
Continue reading Shell chooses oil over whales, threatening Western Pacific Gray
Shell chooses oil over whales, threatening Western Pacific Gray originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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