Collaborative Research: Sustainability of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone

在整个北极地区，土著人民面临着在工业化的现金利益和自给性狩猎的潜在退化之间的艰难选择。自给性狩猎通常提供很大一部分食物，从长远来看，可能比基于不可再生资源的现金经济更可靠。对某些物种的自给性狩猎也可能具有远远超过它们在食物中的贡献的文化意义。在楚科奇海海岸，连接海上油井和陆上码头的管道必须跨越一条近岸走廊，大多数迁徙到北美北极西部的海鸟和哺乳动物都使用这条走廊。这些动物是当地当地人为了生存而猎杀的。在春季，这些动物在陆地冰和流动的浮冰之间形成的开阔水域中穿行。如果输油管道在这个浅水区被春季冰川冲刷破裂，在迁移过程中，石油很可能无法从破碎的冰中的开阔水域中移走。这样的事件不仅会限制可生存栖息地的范围，还会消除当地的狩猎区。因此，在铺设管道时应避免使用通常可供狩猎的关键栖息地。在这项研究中，我们将模拟楚科奇近岸地带以前被猎杀但现在受到威胁的物种(镜象Eider，Spei)和经常被猎杀的物种(King Eider，KIEI)的栖息地需求并绘制出可存活的猎物密度图，并确定Eiders？通过冰层进入这些区域。我们将用传统的生态知识来完善这些地图，了解狩猎KIEI的条件和地区。然后，我们将估计，在迁徙过程中，由于沿四条替代路线修建的管道泄漏的石油，可以通过冰层到达并有利于狩猎的不同羽毛喂食区将被消除的可能性。我们将利用这些信息为我们将在土著社区举办的有组织的决策研讨会提供信息。这些讲习班将有助于就不同管道路线对老年人生存和文化价值的潜在风险，相对于当地建设项目的现金收益，建立当地的可持续性愿景。当地村民将参与创建和形成数据集，并将成为结构化决策讲习班的主要参与者。我们将把我们的工作与美国鱼类和野生动物服务局在这些村庄开展的外展和教育项目结合起来。我们的项目将为濒危物种和候鸟管理办公室未来的评估和决策提供重要信息。我们的现代科学和传统生态数据，以及促进社区共识的建立，将加快BOEM和其他机构随着油田开发的进行而进行的后续影响评估。在半球尺度上，我们开发的方法将作为适用于整个北极发展中的许多此类情况的原型。

Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods, and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. On the Chukchi Sea coast, pipelines connecting offshore oil wells to onshore terminals must be built across a nearshore corridor used by most marine birds and mammals that migrate to the western North American Arctic. These animals are hunted for subsistence by local Natives. During spring, these animals travel through a zone of open water that forms between landfast ice and moving pack ice. If an oil pipeline were ruptured by spring ice scour in this shallow zone, oil could probably not be removed from open water within broken ice during migration. Such an event could not only restrict the extent of viable habitat, but also eliminate local hunting areas. Thus, key habitats that are usually accessible to hunting should be avoided in pipeline placement. In this research, we will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for a formerly hunted but now threatened species (Spectacled Eider, SPEI) and a commonly hunted species (King Eider, KIEI) in the Chukchi nearshore zone, and determine long-term variability in the eiders? access to those areas through the ice. We will refine these maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for KIEI typically occurs. We will then estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. We will use this information to inform structured decision-making workshops we will hold in the Native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.Local villagers will be involved in creating and shaping the data set, and will be the main participants in structured decision-making workshops. We will integrate our work with outreach and education programs conducted in these villages by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our project will yield important information for future evaluations and decision-making by Endangered Species and Migratory Bird Management Offices. Our modern scientific and traditional ecological data, and facilitation of community consensus-building, will expedite later impact assessments by BOEM and other agencies as oilfield development proceeds. On a hemispheric scale, the approach we develop will serve as a prototype applicable to the many such situations developing across the Arctic.