**REPORT TITLE**: The Barrow Arch Environment and Possible Consequences
of Planned Offshore Oil

and Gas Development.

**STUDY TITLE**: Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment
Program‑‑ManagementFunctions‑‑Synthesis Meetings.

CONTRACT NUMBER(S): Part of Outer Continental Shelf Environmental
Assessment Program (OCSEAP) interagency agreement(s).

SPONSORING OCS REGION: Alaska.

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREA(S): Barrow Arch.

FISCAL YEAR(S) OF PROJECT FUNDING: 1984.

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: August 1984.

COST(S): Costs of meeting(s) and report development are part of OCSEAP
management costs.

PROJECT MANAGER(S): Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment
Program (OCSEAP).

AFFILIATION: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

ADDRESS: 701 C Street, Box 56, Anchorage, Alaska 99513.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S)\*: S. Braund, D. Burnham, P. Craig, R. Davis,
B. Gallaway, D. Herter, J. Kruse, G. Lewbel, D. Roseneau, T. Thomson, J.
Truett.

KEY WORDS: Barrow Arch; synthesis; meetings; biology; hazards; fates and
effects; birds; marine mammals; fish; subsistence.

ACCESS NUMBER: SR-001

**BACKGROUND**: Lease Sale 107 (formerly Sale 85) for the Barrow Arch
Planning Area was scheduled for February 1987.  In expectation of this
sale, a meeting was convened to review the status of environmental and
sociological data relevant to the Barrow Arch area.  This report
summarizes the results of the meeting held in Girdwood, Alaska,
30 October to 1 November 1983.

**OBJECTIVES**: (1) To review and evaluate available scientific
literature and data pertaining to possible oil and gas development in
the Barrow Arch Planning Area.

**DESCRIPTION**: This report contains the results of a synthesis
meeting, where scientific and management staff exchanged and assessed
relevant information concerning the Barrow Arch Planning Area.  Topics
presented in chapters include: transport and fate of spilled oil;
environmental hazards to petroleum industry development; marine mammals;
marine and coastal birds; fish resources; lower trophic levels; coastal
ecosystems and sensitivities; subsistence economics and marine resource
use patterns; and socioeconomic issues.

**SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS**: Potential consequences of oil and gas
activities in the Barrow Arch Planning Area include: effects of
pollutants, particularly oil, on vertebrates and their food webs;
effects of increased human activity and boat and air traffic on birds
and mammals; changes in life styles of local people and consequent
changes in harvest levels of mammals, birds, and fishes; and
socioeconomic changes with regional and statewide implications.

Natural hazards to Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) structures and
activities are sea ice behavior, seafloor irregularities, and coastal
processes.  Seabirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl use Barrow Arch
seasonally for nesting and staging.  Anadromous fishes are not
prevalent, but small, trophically important species (herring, capelin,
and sand lance) are seasonally abundant.  Marine mammal distribution and
abundance varies with season and ice pack position.  Nutrient and carbon
inputs to the Barrow Arch are primarily from outside sources. 
Phytoplankton is more important than ice algae for primary production. 
Employment related to oil and gas development will become available to
local inhabitants, and disruption of subsistence level activities will
be the major effect of OCS development.

**STUDY RESULTS**: Transport and fate of spilled oil in the Barrow Arch
area will depend on physical factors such as currents, tides, winds,
storms, and ice coverage.  Open‑water circulation is generally
northeastward.  Eddies are common immediately north of the
westward‑extending promontories, and a baroclinic coastal jet parallels
the coast in the direction of the wind.  Predominant wind direction is
northeasterly, and major storms in summer and fall come from the
southwest.  Upwelling of relatively cold and saline outer shelf water
into coastal areas occurs under strong northeasterly winds.  Ice covers
most of Barrow Arch for about eight months each year.  Shorefast ice
extends out to approximately the 20‑m isobath.  In spring, an open‑water
lead system usually separates shorefast ice from moving ice. 
Hypothetical oil spill scenarios indicate that, generally, oil spilled
in nearshore waters would move seaward rather than coastward.  For oil
spilled in open water after 30 days, 20% would be evaporated; 40% would
be in the water column; and 40% in the surface layer.  Oil spilled under
shorefast ice could become incorporated into the ice and eventually
reach shore or be transported seaward and to the northwest.  Oil spilled
in coastal, low energy areas would persist for considerable time. 
Drilling mud and cuttings discharges should not present major
contamination problems; however, long‑term and sublethal effects are not
well known.

Natural environmental hazards to development include seafloor
irregularities (sediment thickness, gas charged sediments, subsea
permafrost, sand waves, and subsurface rallies), sea ice behavior
(Chukchi polynya, ice islands, pack ice movement, and ice gouging), and
coastal processes (storm surge and erosion).

Twenty‑one species of marine mammals use the Barrow Arch Planning Area
as a migratory route, summer feeding ground, or both.  Nine mammal
species (walrus; spotted, bearded, and ringed seals; beluga, bowhead,
and gray whales; polar bear; and artic fox) occur year round. 
Distribution and movements of these species and vulnerability to
petroleum activities depend on the seasonal ice cycle.  In winter, only
polar bear and bearded seal are common enough to be of concern.  In
spring, bowhead and beluga whales in the nearshore lead system are
vulnerable; walrus, and bearded and spotted seals are of less concern in
this lead system.  In summer, lagoons and bays used by beluga whale and
spotted seal, and a walrus haul out site near Cape Lisburne are coastal
sites of vulnerability.  Nearshore and offshore waters used by gray and
fin whales, and open pack ice areas used by bearded and ringed seals,
walrus, and polar bear are of less concern because the animals are
sparsely distributed.  Noise associated with development may have a
detrimental effect on mammals. 

Avifauna is diverse, abundant, and includes waterfowl (brants, common
and king eiders, and oldsquaws), cliff‑nesting alcids (primarily common
and thick billed murres), gulls (kittiwakes and glaucous gull), and
shorebirds (primarily dunlin, red and red‑necked phalaropes, and
semipalmated and western sand pipers).  Barrow Arch serves as a nesting
area during summer, a foraging area during spring and fall, and a
staging and molting area during summer and fall.  Coastal cliffs attract
cliff nesting alcids and gulls, while coastal lagoons and salt marshes
attract waterfowl and shore birds.  These areas would be particularly
vulnerable to oil and gas activities.  Species with low reproductive
rates (e.g., most alcids) would be affected by long‑term impacts.

The fish fauna exhibit low diversity and are comprised of marine and
anadromous species from Arctic and Pacific Oceans.  Nearshore species
include herring, Arctic cod, rainbow smelt, least cisco, capelin,
saffron cod, fourhorn sculpin, and Arctic flounder.  Many species
(Arctic and saffron cods, capelin, and sand lance) are important forage
for mammalian and avian predators.  Small local populations of
anadromous fishes (white fishes, salmons, etc.) are known, but lack of
adequate natal streams and frequent cold water upwellings have precluded
successful establishment.  With the exception of local subsistence level
salmon fisheries, no commercial fisheries are presently supported in
Barrow Arch.  Deleterious effects of oil and gas activities on fishes
would be most pronounced on sensitive early life history stages, often
found in nearshore areas and estuaries.

Phytoplankton contributed most of the fixed carbon to the system despite
the abundance of macroalgal communities.  Most nutrients and organic
matter enter the Barrow Arch from the Bering Sea.  Zooplankton
communities are comprised mostly of small copepods.  Benthic infauna
biomass is higher on the southern Barrow Arch shelf than in northern
areas.  Echinoderms represent most of the epifaunal biomass; however,
epifaunal data are limited.  Epifauna serve as food for arctic cod,
bearded and ringed seals, and gray whale.  Nearshore invertebrates
consist mostly of amphipods, isopods, and mysids which are preyed upon
by birds and fishes.  Potential impacts of oil and gas operations on
lower trophic levels would be minimal.

Physical distributions of barrier islands, bays, lagoons, inlets, and
stream mouths dictate biotal distribution.  Coastal ecosystems include
several vertebrates that are important to man: bowhead, beluga, and gray
whales; walrus; ringed, bearded, and spotted seals; sea birds,
waterfowl, and shorebirds; and anadromous and marine fishes.  At least
10 coastal localities have been designated as sensitive based on their
physiography and fauna.

Subsistence level activities have been altered, primarily by upgrading
equipment, and through increased employment and income to natives.  The
increase in efficiency will change the pressure on exploited animal
populations and likely require corresponding regulatory changes.

**STUDY PRODUCT(S)**: Truett, J. C. (ed.).  1984.  Proceedings of a
Synthesis Meeting: The Barrow Arch Environment and Possible Consequences
of Planned Offshore Oil and Gas Development.  A report by LGL Ecological
Research Associates, Inc. for the U.S. Department of the Interior,
Minerals Management Service Alaska OCS Office, Anchorage, AK and the
U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, OCS Environmental Assessment Program, Anchorage, AK. 
NTIS No. PB85‑202240/AS.  229 pp.

\*P.I.\'s affiliation may be different than that listed for Project
Manager(s).