Russian oil giant partnership with scientists helps to restore grey whales’ livestock
The joint effort of marine researchers and Russian oil and gas company Sakhalin Energy caused a growth of grey whale population. Now these giant marine inhabitants are not on the verge of extinction, but the involvement of other companies operating in the region is required to keep the result.
AFP reports that just 10 years ago the population of western grey whales included only 115 beings, and they were considered to be on the verge of extinction. Now the numbers grew up to 174, experts said at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) world meeting in Honolulu. And with 43 breeding females in the group in 2015 up from 27 in 2004 the whales now have a chance for survival.
Their feeding area next to Russian Sakhalin Island is used for oil drilling so they suffered from numerous threats such as underwater noise or possible collisions with ships. But after they were listed as critically endangered in 2003, loans to Sakhalin Energy were restricted until they hired a group of marine scientists to advise company's shelf operations. The IUCN World Conservation Congress estimates the effect of this collaborative work as three to four percent population growth a year.
Considering the results of the cooperation, the deal known as the Western Grey Advisory Panel is to be prolonged for at least five years more until 2021. Nevertheless, according to environmentalists' opinion, it is necessary to involve other companies operating in the region (now Sakhalin Energy is the only participant). Otherwise, the survival of the whales is uncertain as industrial impact on the marine environment is cumulative.
Gazprom, Rosneft and Exxon Neftegas Limited are among Sakhalin's major oil producers, and the latter recently started building a pier in an important lagoon area. According to Exxon's spokesperson Todd Spitler, the company considered the concerns, and 'has co-sponsored a successful western whale monitoring programme conducted annually offshore Sakhalin since 1997, and has invested over $40 million in the programme to date'. However, the scientists are extremely worried about this development.
By the way, during the project, some new discoveries were made. Inter alia, now we know that western grey whales are mammals that make longest migrations. They travel up to 10.880 km from Sakhalin to their wintering place in Mexico's the Baja California peninsula.
Sakhalin Energy is not the only Russian company implementing environmental programmes. According to the environmental rating of Russian oil and gas companies prepared in 2014 with the assistance of WFF Russia and CREON Energy, the company is on the third place after Surgutneftegaz and Gazprom. As for Tatarstan participants, Tatneft is on the 8th place of the rating.