Abstract
Although development of hard mineral resources, expansion of the timber industry, and resultant increases in human pressures along the North Pacific and Arctic coasts will ultimately adversely affect northern marine bird populations, current and proposed activities of the petroleum industry are the most immediate threat to marine birds. The Federal Government's recently announced plans for oil and gas leasing on the Pacific outer continental shelf eclipse the significance of North Slope and Cook Inlet oil developments. Within a few years, onshore storage facilities and supertankers plying these waters will undoubtedly result in widespread chronic and localized catastrophic contamination of northern marine ecosystems.
Coastal and offshore waters south of the reaches of the seasonal ice pack are tremendously productive, supporting a diverse wealth of bird life throughout the year. Because these ecosystems are relatively stable and the impact of temporal oscillations on the physical environment is not as great as in the Arctic, birds in these areas are probably least susceptible to man's influence on a long-term basis.
Avifaunal associations of the Arctic are less diverse and have shorter food chains than more southerly ones; consequently they are more susceptible to environmental perturbations. Slow growth and maturation rates of arctic species and resultant prolonged population recovery periods further aggravate this situation.
Available knowledge of northern seabirds and their environmental requirements is in inverse relation to the latitude at which they are found and to the ecological stability of the ecosystems involved. Arctic bird associations and their fragile environments are least understood, but are doubtless the most vulnerable to the detrimental effects of man-caused environmental degradation. The paucity of knowledge about them limits the possibility of predicting the consequences of petrochemical exploitation and thereby safeguarding against potential problems. Existing technology and support system capabilities of the oil industry are more poorly defined for arctic areas, further compounding this problem. Regardless of information amassed in the future and precautionary measures taken during exploitation of arctic petroleum reserves, the potential for disastrous and perhaps irrecoverable losses to northern marine bird species and populations is great. Losses of major magnitude could appreciably alter the productivity of northern marine ecosystems.
Although the coastal waters of the northwestern United States and western Canada support a plenitude of marine life, including marine birds, relatively little is known about these ecosystems. Sustained interest in quantitative aspects of this area's marine bird populations has developed only within the past few years. As Sowl and Bartonek (1974) indicated, seabirds are the most visible component of a marine ecosystem and, at the same time, they are the least understood. Management information has been haphazardly gathered, and because seabirds occur in incredibly large numbers in north Pacific and arctic waters, it has been convenient to assume that, in the absence of problems, systematized data gathering and analysis were unnecessary.
The sudden emergence in the late 1960's of Alaska and portions of northwest Canada as potential major oil production areas has changed this situation dramatically. Ongoing and planned petroleum development in the North and the concurrent expansion of hard mineral extraction and logging activities now threaten to adversely affect these marine bird resources. Alaska's human population, which numbered only slightly over 400,000 in 1975, will probably double within the present decade. Doubtless, increased numbers of people, oriented toward mineral and other resource exploitation rather than toward traditional wildland values, will compound these problems. Pressures on State and local governments for increased services necessitated by increasing populations will require additional expenditures. In Alaska, at least, these demands are being imposed before revenues from minerals become available. This necessitates additional oil leases, timber sales, and other means for obtaining immediate funding, thereby adding to the acceleration and irreversibility of industrial expansion into the North.
This atmosphere of change has spawned major government-and industry-supported programs to broaden knowledge of northern marine ecosystems, including their avifauna. There has been a recent flurry of publications on seabird populations and biology and a proliferation of papers stressing the need to learn more about the biota of this area. Nevertheless, environmental impact statements on proposed developmental programs in the North still raise more questions than are being answered. Attempts are being made to apply available information on oil spills, human disturbance, and other aspects of environmental degradation gathered from experiences in other areas to expected problems in northern environments, but one must realize that much of the information gained from experience elsewhere is not applicable to these areas. It is realistic to assume that, until development-related problems occur in the North, biologists cannot estimate the magnitude or ecological dimensions of their effects. However, existing knowledge of ecological "laws" and of the biology of some species provides the base for limited predictive efforts.
It is the purpose of this paper to describe significant current and proposed resource development along the coasts and the ocean floors, to summarize existing knowledge of the ecology of marine birds in these areas, and to identify potential conflicts with marine bird conservation. We hope that identification of these problems will provide impetus to data gathering and management programs necessary for conservation of these valuable resources.