According to a newsletter for the Center for Biological Diversity, the Bush Administration has been attacked for allowing offshore oil and gas leases on the endangered North Pacific right whale’s “critical habitat.”
The Center says the scenario is familiar with the same administration’s idea to list the polar bear as a threatened species and simulatneously moving forward with offshore oil and gas leases in its habitat – Chukchi Sea.
As it turns out, the Center for Biological Diversity has filed litigation against the Bush administration over both the Chukchi Sea oil leases as well as the Bering Sea leases, where the North Pacific right whale calls home.
“As its term in office winds down, the Bush administration is becoming increasingly schizophrenic,” an email by the CBD went on to say.
In aggregate, the Bering Sea problem affects right whales and other animals like Pacific walruses, ribbon seals, humpbacks, belugas, seabirds, and salmon.
Adding to that there are only about 50 North Pacific right whales left, cites the CBD.