Upon reconsidering its previous reluctance to endorse a proposed vessel speed reduction for Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) oil tankers to protect whales from ship strikes, the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, representing civil society stakeholders throughout the Exxon Valdez oil spill region, just sent a letter to all TAPS tanker owners requesting the following: “The Council is deeply concerned about protecting whales from impacts of the oil industry in our region…We are requesting that the Trans Alaska Pipeline System shipping companies consider voluntary vessel speed reductions down to 10 knots in our region when it is safe to do so, to reduce the risk of whale strikes, as well as to reduce air emissions and underwater noise pollution.”
Reducing the speed of large ships to 10 knots has been demonstrated to reduce the risk and severity of whale strikes by 50%, reduce underwater noise by 50%, and reduce fuel use and harmful stack emissions.
But for years, TAPS tanker owners have stubbornly refused to adopt this protective measure, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), after conducting a seriously flawed assessment of shipstrike risk in the region, has declined to recommend such. Now the citizens’ council has stepped up and requested just that. This is precisely the value of a robust citizens advisory role in oversight of the oil industry — when industry and government fail to ensure environmental safety, citizens must intervene. The council is to be commended for its action.
The reckless operation of TAPS tankers (the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill) caused catastrophic, long-lasting environmental damage to Prince William Sound and the north Gulf of Alaska, and even today (35 years later) some whale groups (e.g., the A T1killer whale pod, that declined from 22 individuals to 7 after the spill) are still not recovering. There may be little we can do now to help the A T1 killer whales and the ten other whale species whose habitat includes the PWS tanker lanes, but at least we owe them our best efforts not to run them over with massive oil tankers.
Now it is time for the TAPS tanker owners to do the right thing and adopt the proposed speed reduction to a maximum of 10 knots, inbound and outbound, just as many shippers — including TAPS tankers — have done in critical whale habitat elsewhere. Alaska’s whales certainly deserve equivalent protection from ship strikes.
— Rick Steiner
Anchorage
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