Alaska Delegation to Zinke: Exclude Bering Strait from OCS Proposal
![The coast near Wales, Alaska](https://knom.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2015-07-15-laura-k-travels-002-2432px-1200x801.jpg)
Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and Congressman Young say they support oil and gas leases in both the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. However, their letter asks Interior Secretary Zinke to remove 11 regions of offshore Alaska from the draft OCS proposal, including Bering Strait waters previously requested for protection by Kawerak.
72-Hour Government Shutdown Delays Federal-Level Meetings on Rural Alaska Issues
![United States Capitol Building](https://knom.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/united-states-capitol-1675540-1200x675.jpg)
Besides affecting AFN delegates’ and Melanie Bahnke’s scheduled conversations with government employees, the shutdown impacted Kawerak’s Board Chairman, Frank Katchatag, who was slated to speak at a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management public meeting today. This one BOEM proposed public meeting to be held in Alaska, regarding the National OCS program, is now postponed.
BOEM Proposes Oil and Gas Lease Sale of Almost All Outer Continental Shelf; Kawerak and Others Not In Favor
![Offshore oil rig, viewed in the distance from the shore with waves crashing in the foreground](https://knom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Offshore-Oil-Rig-Seen-from-Shore-Pixabay-public-domain-1200x800.jpg)
In a reversal of Obama-era policy, a new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management proposal would open nearly all the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States to oil and gas exploration. The draft proposal recommends 19 lease sales be held in Alaska, 11 of them in areas not considered for oil and gas leasing in decades or ever before. That doesn’t sit well with regional organizations like Kawerak.
Ecological Atlas of Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas Conveys Years’ Worth of Data
![Some samples from the newest ecological atlas of the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas. Photo Credit: Davis Hovey, KNOM (2017)](https://knom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Maps-1-1200x900.jpg)
Audubon Alaska has released a new, free and publicly-accessible ecological atlas of the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas. It’s driven by years of careful measurements: “we… let the data do the talking,” says an Audubon representative who visited Nome last week.