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AP file photo / AL GRILLO

Whale bones from past hunts sit in the village Point Hope, Alaska, in this Oct. 13, 2006 photo. The leaders of the Inupiat Eskimo village in Arctic Alaska, which depends on marine mammals for food, do not support offshore oil exploration because of the potentially heavy toll an oil spill would have on wildlife and the indigenous lifestyle.

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Gulf spill focuses fear of drilling disaster in Arctic villages

Published: August 31st, 2010 09:34 AM
Last Modified: August 31st, 2010 09:34 AM

BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill has delayed energy exploration in the Chukchi Sea by Shell for another year at least, but that is little reassurance for the villagers of Point Hope and other Inupiat communities in Northwest Alaska opposed to drilling near their traditional hunting waters and shorelines. A long article in the weekend Denver Post tells of Point Hope's years of worries about drilling and the failure of federal oversight officials and oil company representatives to reassure villagers their way of life won't be made "extinct" by energy development.

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From The Post:

"That spill in the gulf, it could have been our ocean," said [Point Hope] Mayor Daisy Sharp. "It's sad to say, but in a way I'm glad it happened. Maybe now people will take a closer look at offshore oil drilling." ...

"Our ancestors had seen the hunger for oil when the Yankee whalers came in the 19th century," said Steve Oomittuk, who was vice president of the council.

"They came for the whale oil and wiped out the whales. Whole villages disappeared," Oomittuk said. "Then six years ago we saw the hunger for oil coming back. We started to think this time we would go extinct."