Conservationists condemn plans for Alaskan Arctic Ocean petroleum leases

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Two sales have been held in the Chukchi Sea Planning Area previously in 1988 and 1991. All of those leases have expired.

A lack of sea ice last summer forced much of the Chukchi Sea's walrus population to haul out on shore. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not analyzed aerial photographs to do an official count but estimate that as many as 6,000 walruses hauled out on the coast that parallels the lease area because they did not have the sea ice to use as a platform for foraging on clams, snails, crabs, shrimps and worms on the ocean bottom.

On the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea, biologists recorded huge herds gathering on shore instead of the pack ice, including one group of up to 40,000 animals at Point Shmidt, a spot that had not been used by walruses as a haulout for a century. Russian biologists estimate that 3,000 to 4,000 animals were crushed in stampedes when hunters low-flying aircraft startled walruses and sent them rushing to the safety of the sea.