Summary of Working Paper No. 40-1996
II.4.3:
By Øystein Wiig, Zoological Museum, University of Oslo, Norway; Stanislav E.
Belikov and Andrei N Boltunov, All Russian Research Institute for Nature
Conservation, Moscow, Russia; and, Gerald W. Garner, National Biological Service,
Anchorage, Alaska,USA.
The main object of this project is to establish a database containing
information on distribution, abundance, migrations and breeding and feeding areas for
selected marine mammals in the Northern Sea Route area and to present a
discussion of possible impacts of the activity on these species.
The project is headed by Professor Øystein Wiig, Zoological Museum, University
of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, while national coordinators are Professor Yasuhiko
Naito, National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Dr. Stanislav Belikov,
All-Russian Research Institute for Nature Conservation, Moscow, and Dr. Gerald W.
Garner, National Biological Service, Anchorage.
The central point in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to identify
and evaluate key impacts from possible NSR activity on the environment
represented by Valued Ecosystem Components (VECs). A VEC is defined as a resource or
environmental feature that: 1) is important (not only economically) to a local
human
population, 2) has a national or international profile, or 3) if altered from
its existing status, will be important for the evaluation of environmental
impacts of industrial developments, and for the focusing of administrative efforts.
The evaluation is done by defining and describing Impact Hypotheses (IHs)
about how VECs are linked
to impact factors.
In the marine mammal project seven VECs were selected based on an evaluation
of their relative importance: polar bear, walrus, ringed seal, bearded seal,
white whale, bowhead whale and Gray whale. Fifteen IHs were evaluated. Most of
them were concerned with oil pollution and the effects of noise on the selected
species. One IH related to the accumulation of pollutants in the marine ecosystem
was treated in common for all VECs.
Generally it was concluded that the polar bear is most vulnerable to oil
pollution while the other six species are most affected by noise.