The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service recently issued Shell Oil an “incidental harassment authorization,” giving the company permission to harass thousands of whales and seals if it is allowed to move forward with exploratory drilling this summer. But what exactly does this mean for the marine life of the Arctic?
(The following blog was written by Richard Kahn, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Kahn has spent the last sixteen summers paddling wilderness rivers in the Brooks Mountain Range and North Slope of northwestern Alaska. He has traveled extensively in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, spending more than 300 days on the Colville River and its tributaries.)
