The US Fish and Wildlife Service have delayed listing the polar bear as an endangered species, allowing oil and natural gas drilling to begin in the shores off Alaska.

Despite legal efforts by Environmental groups 30 million acres of the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska have been auctioned to oil and gas companies for drilling leases.

Environmental groups, including the National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, were unable to stop the auction in a federal court. Their claim shows drilling will endanger polar bears, bowhead whales, Pacific walrus, ribbon seals, threatened spectacled eiders, and other marine birds and fish.

Record losses of sea ice have occurred and two-thirds of polar bear populations could be gone by 2050 if global climate change continues. Oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea will significantly impact shrinking habitat for polar bears.

Over the next five years, the US government has scheduled 8 additional lease sales in the Arctic Ocean, Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

The US Department of the Interior received 667 bids for the 5,355 blocks of land up for lease sale in the Chukchi Sea Feb 6, 2008. Shell bid $105.3 million for a single exploration block, the most ever offered for a single tract in a US federal offshore lease sale.

View February 4, 2008 PlanetArk article
View January 31, 2008 National Audubon Society press release
View January 7, 2008 Earthjustice article
View February 14, 2008 Reuters article
Visit National Audubon Society

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