World Wildlife Fund

World Wildlife Fund Board Chairman Bruce Babbitt travels to Alaska's Bristol Bay in hopes of repeating history and helping prevent oil and gas development in the region.

Part 1: Flying In

Margaret Williams, the director of WWF's Bering Sea program, on the tarmac of the Dillingham airport with Bruce Babbitt and Bubba Cook, a WWF fisheries officer.
© WWF-Canon / Tom LALLEY

Getting to Bristol Bay - the home base of the Bering Sea fishing fleet - takes me over some of the most majestic land and seascapes in the world. Snow-capped peaks rise straight out of the ocean, their glaciers flowing all the way to the water, and open tundra extends for miles, laced with untamed rivers that bring the bounty of the Bering Sea to the continent. It's easy to see why this wild and rugged place is a focus for the WWF as its biological productivity is unmatched in the United States.

I'm here to see first-hand the people, places and wildlife that would be most affected by plans to drill for oil and gas here. As the chairman of WWF's board, I represent our more than one million members who have said quite clearly that this is a special place that ought to be protected.

An aerial view of the vast mudflats of the Nushagak River.

Year after year, Bristol Bay hauls in more than half the nation's seafood. All told, it's worth more than $2 billion. It's safe to say that if you've ever eaten a fish stick, halibut or wild-caught salmon, there's a good chance that it came out of the Bering Sea, and through Bristol Bay.

Bristol Bay is also home to a spectacular array of wildlife, including sixteen species of whale, seals, sea otters, grizzlies and millions of birds. The dominant species in Bristol Bay is salmon, with the world's largest run of sockeye salmon coming right up the bay, and providing a feast for man and beast alike. At the height of the run, fishing boats work night and day and grizzlies line the rivers to gorge on the bounty.

Under current plants, oil and gas drilling could take place in critical habitat for the North Pacific Right Whale, the most endangered marine mammal on earth.
© WWF

With such a treasure-trove of wildlife in the area, it's no surprise that the Bristol Bay community was concerned when, in December 2006, President Bush rescinded a long-standing presidential moratorium which had prohibited drilling in Bristol Bay. Also, this past July, the Minerals Management Service released a five-year plan that would lease large parts of the bay for oil and gas drilling here. This plan could allow drilling in even some of the most valuable fishing grounds in the world, as well as in critical habitat for north Pacific right whales, the most endangered whale population in the world. Click here for an extended timeline of events.

When people hear about a plan to drill in the Bay, they often ask me what harm oil drilling could do amidst such a vast area of wilderness.

There are several responses I provide when I hear this question. Alaska is a lot more vulnerable than most people might think. With drilling come roads, pipelines, depots and other facilities. Oil tankers that would have to fight the fierce storms of the Bering Sea would only need one Exxon Valdez-type accident here to devastate the salmon industry for decades to come.

In the past 50 years, temperatures in Alaska have increased four degrees Fahrenheit overall while worldwide, temperatures have increased slightly more than one degree Fahrenheit.
© Chapman and Walsh, 2004

I also tell them about global warming, an even bigger problem that's already hitting Bristol Bay. Alaska has warmed four times faster than the rest of the world - four degrees in the past 50 years. The Yukon, the great river of the Alaska, has warmed an astounding 10 degrees in the last 25 years. If the wildlife, fishing industry and Native way of life is to survive here, Bristol Bay will need all the protection it can get.

Protection was the purpose of my last visit to the Bay. I remember coming here when I was Secretary of the Interior. I orchestrated a buy out of the oil and gas leases in Bristol Bay. It seemed at the time that we had permanently protected the area from drilling, but now I'm back to try to repeat history. My goal on this visit is to meet the people connected to this issue and then go back to Washington, D.C. and use my position as the chairman of the WWF board to make another difference.