ACCESS NUMER: 30053

STUDY TITLE: Beaufort Sea Polar Bear Monitoring Workshop

REPORT TITLE: Proceedings: Beaufort Sea Polar Bear Monitoring Workshop

CONTRACT NUMBER: 2-4043-0053 ; TASK ORDER NUMBER: AK-02-06

MMS STUDY NUMBER: OCS Study MMS 2005-034

SPONSORING OCS REGION: Alaska

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREA: Alaska

FISCAL YEARS OF PROJECT FUNDING: FY2002, FY 2003, FY 2004

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: July 2005

COST(S): (BY FISCAL YEAR): FY2002: $0; FY2003: $10,000.00; FY2004: $0; CUMULATIVE

PROJECT COST: $10,000.00

PROJECT MANAGER: Scott Schliebe

AFFILIATION (OF PROJECT MANAGER): U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals

Management

ADDRESS: 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR*: Scott Schliebe

KEY WORDS: Polar bear, Beaufort Sea, monitoring program, oil and gas industry

BACKGROUND:

Research on polar bears in Alaska conducted during the past 40 years has yielded valuable

information regarding population ecology, den ecology, recruitment and survival, and habitat use by

polar bears. However, quantitative data that specifically addresses potential cumulative impacts of

oil and gas development on polar bears and the effects of disturbance related to human activities on

polar bear habitat use, as well as recruitment and survival, is lacking. In the past, potential impacts

from specified activities have been monitored on a case-by-case basis. Currently, long term

monitoring programs do not exist to monitor cumulative effects on polar bears in the Beaufort Sea.

A comprehensive, fully integrated monitoring approach to assess the potential effects of oil and gas

development on polar bears is warranted. Development of a long-term monitoring program will help

to increase the accuracy and adequately to assess potential impacts and effects, and to implement

measures to minimize impacts.

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this workshop was to facilitate discussion necessary to identify components

to develop a comprehensive monitoring strategy for polar bears in relation to the oil and gas industry

in Alaska that will provide information to help reduce bear/human interactions and help protect

polar bear habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population.

DESCRIPTION:

In 2003, the FWS hosted a workshop to identify the elements necessary to develop a

comprehensive monitoring program to better address potential short and long-term impacts of oil

and gas development on polar bears in Alaska, particularly the Southern Beaufort Sea population.

Specifically, the FWS sought information from the participants that would identify elements to: 1)

help reduce bear/human interactions, and 2) help protect polar bear habitat for the Southern

Beaufort Sea polar bear population.
ACCESS NUMER: 30053

The workshop was held at the Hilltop Ski Area Lodge, Anchorage, Alaska on September 3-5,

2003. Participants included government representatives from federal, state, and Canadian's

agencies; oil and gas industry representatives; biological consultants; non-government organizations

(NGO) representatives; and university representatives.

Participants were involved in working group sessions where a list of possible effects of oil

and gas activities on polar bears were identified and discussed. These included: habitat alteration,

chemical contamination, oil spills, industrial noise, attraction to human activity, preclusion of habitat

use, and human/polar bear interactions.

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS:

Recommendations based on potential oil and gas industry impacts on polar bears were

discussed and listed. These are to be incorporated into an improved management plan identifying

types of information necessary to monitor polar bears of the Southern Beaufort Sea stock will result

from the recommendations of this workshop.

STUDY RESULTS:

Results were described as recommendations based on potential oil and gas industry impacts.

They were:

Habitat Alteration Recommendations

Document naturally-occurring changes of the physical habitat over time.

Document any physical changes to habitat due to the increased development of oilfield

infrastructure.

Identify important polar bear use areas across the Arctic coast.

Consider the value of abandoned infrastructure for denning or resting habitat.

Complete denning habitat maps for NPR-A and Arctic Refuge.

Consider research to document and develop a predictive model to measure the use of one denning

habitat substrate over another.

Document impacts related to arctic climate change.

Contamination Recommendations

Continue contaminant monitoring programs. Improve sampling protocols and study designs to

ensure systematic sampling.

Analyze specimens and report results in a timely fashion.

Stabilize funding for the AMMTAP program.

Monitor disease and parasites in polar bears. Evaluate the trend in relation to climate change.

Develop a regional "before/after" monitoring approach in relation to industry development.

Attraction/Avoidance Recommendations

Examine the known monitoring data for trends of polar bear movement from the bowhead whale

carcass sites to the oil fields.

FWS, MMS, NOAA, industry representatives, the Eskimo Whaling Commission, and local

government should meet to discuss the future of whale carcass sites.

Define "attractants" on the polar bear observation form.

Change the polar bear observation form to describe bear behavior in terms of attraction and

avoidance.

Obtain industry maps coverages (GIS) and use them to plot current polar bear locations and

movement in and around facilities.

Compare the use of denning on human-created substrates to the use of the surrounding, suitable

naturally occurring areas.

Monitor the annual numbers of polar bear-viewing tourists and guides.

Oil Spill Recommendations

Improve the precision of oil spill modeling.

Update oil spill models.

Develop and incorporate polar bear scenarios within the North Slope regional spill drills.

Update FWS Oil Spill Response Plan.
* P.1. 's affiliation may be different than that listed for Project Manager.

ACCESS NUMER: 30053

Industrial Noise Recommendations

Design a study that can accurately test disturbance effects such as heart rate or movement on bears

in dens.

Revisit the one-mile buffer requirement around maternal polar bear dens to determine whether the

distance is appropriate.

Reassess den mitigation practices.

Human Interaction Recommendations

Increase slope-wide information and education programs.

Revisit the polar bear hazing protocol as it is related to behavior.

Staff a FWS position on the North Slope to interface with the oil and gas industry during the

time of maximum bear activity.

Create a website with current information on incidental take and monitoring of bears.

Have meetings with other North Slope operators, groups, and companies to keep more

companies informed.

Work with other North Slope organizations to increase polar bear awareness and conservation.

Discuss with North Slope regarding the type of polar bear information necessary for quality

observation reports.

Overhaul the polar bear observation form.

Standardize the LOA issuance process.

Enforce LOAs and incidental take violations.

Monitor the shipping industry.

STUDY PRODUCT:

The product of this study was the identification of components necessary for a monitoring

strategy which would limit bear/human interactions on the North Slope and help protect polar bear

habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population and a matrix for the implementation of

identified actions (Table 1 in Proceedings).

MAP OF AREA

Figure 1. The Alaskan North Slope and the Central Beaufort Sea was the area of discussion during the

Beaufort Sea Polar Bear Monitoring Workshop.