The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today announced that it will hold an offshore oil and natural gas lease sale covering ~958,000 acres in Alaska’s Cook Inlet on Friday, Dec. 30. The announcement noted that BOEM is excluding 10 lease blocks that overlap with beluga whale critical habitat areas and 7 lease blocks that overlap with northern sea otter critical habitat areas.
In its announcement on the Record of Decision, BOEM also highlighted mitigation requirements for activity in beluga whale nearshore feeding areas, within 1,000 meters of northern sea otter critical habitat, and areas north of Anchor Point.
