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| Photo: mikebaird/flickr |
Arctic oil drilling fought off in Lancaster Sound
Area to become marine conservation area
By Sharon Oosthoek
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| Locate Lancaster Sound (Map: Steven Fick/Canadian Geographic) |
Last summer was a stressful time to be
the mayor of Grise Fiord, a tiny hamlet
on Nunavut’s Ellesmere Island. Meeka
Kiguktak was keeping tabs on a research
vessel motoring to Lancaster Sound to
conduct seismic testing. Kiguktak and
others in Grise Fiord and nearby communities were worried that the federal
government scientists aboard would
discover oil and gas deposits, putting an
end to a proposed marine conservation
area for the sound, which is sandwiched
between Baffin and Devon islands.
Kiguktak is sleeping much better these
days. In December, then Environment
Minister John Baird announced that
Ottawa is prepared to give up potentially
lucrative petroleum deposits in the sound
in order to protect a place that is home
to most of the world’s narwhals, 40 percent
of its belugas, massive bowhead
whales, walruses, polar bears and seals.
The government has proposed the
creation a national marine conservation
area, a designation that was put forward
as far back as 1987.
“When I saw the news, I said, ‘Is this
for real?’” says Kiguktak. “You don’t
know how happy I am.”
The announcement follows an August
court injunction against the planned seismic
testing, obtained by the Qikiqtani
Inuit Association (QIA) just days before
the research ship was due to arrive. QIA
president Okalik Eegeesiak described her
group’s appeal to the courts as a “last
resort” after nearly a year of inaction on a
2009 agreement Ottawa signed with QIA
and the Nunavut government to begin
work on establishing a conservation area
in Lancaster Sound. “We’re very optimistic
now,” says Eegeesiak. “We hope this reannouncement
will speed up the process.”
Kevin McNamee, director of Parks
Canada’s parks establishment branch,
says the conservation area’s boundaries
— expected to take in an area twice the
size of Lake Erie — must be determined
through research and consultation with
QIA, the Nunavut government and
several federal agencies. “It’s difficult to
say there will be a ribbon cutting in
two years,” he says, “but it’s not out of
the question.”
While few are happier than Kiguktak
about the progress, she is keenly aware
that despite the ban on oil and gas
drilling in marine conservation areas, a
spill from nearby operations could be
devastating. There is currently no offshore
drilling in the Canadian Arctic, but last year, Indian and Northern Affairs
Canada auctioned off $103 million
in exploration rights to 205,000 deep -
water hectares in the Beaufort Sea, to
the west of Lancaster Sound. Moreover,
U.K.-based Cairn Energy is conducting
seismic testing to assess the potential for
oil and gas development off the coast
of Greenland.
“The ocean is connected. The animals
don’t stay in one place,” says Kiguktak.
“A spill in Greenland will affect Lancaster
Sound. We will not be naive about that.”
April 2011 issue
