Author Description

The Beaufort Environmental Monitoring Project (BEMP) was initiated in 1983 to provide the technical basis for the design, operation and evaluation of a comprehensive and defensible environmental research and monitoring program to accompany phased hydrocarbon development in the Beaufort Sea. This document describes the results of two workshops held during the fourth year of the project and presents a review of research programs that are relevant to one or more BEMP impact hypotheses. The first two workshops examined Hypothesis No. 20, which focuses on the effects of discharge of cuttings contaminated with oil-based drilling muds on fish, birds and marine mammals. The second workshop involved the evaluation of two hypotheses related to the effects of hydrocarbon development on the western Arctic population of bowhead whales. These hypotheses were examined by separate working groups. The first reviewed new information relevant to the original bowhead whale hypothesis (Hypothesis No. 1) and the second examined a new hypothesis related to the westward transport of oil from the region.