40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: ARCO hires naturalist to study wildlife

Early 10-year commission establishes high standards for environmental protection in Prudhoe Bay, North Slope oil fields

Rose Ragsdale

For Petroleum News

When oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, very little was known about the North Slope, except that its tundra and permafrost would pose considerable problems in developing the field and in getting the oil to market.

Atlantic Richfield Co. hired a Canadian scientist, Angus Gavin, to conduct a 10-year comprehensive baseline study from 1969 to 1978 to determine Prudhoe Bay’s ecological values. Objectives of the study included evaluating the effects of oil field development on the environment; inventorying caribou, waterfowl and sea birds and other wildlife using this region of the Slope and evaluating the effects of oil field development on their numbers, distribution and migrations; and conducting a baseline study of all offshore islands.

Gavin came to Canada as a young zoologist from Scotland to work for Hudson’s Bay Co. in Canada. For six years, he was assigned to the Western Arctic where his only means of communication with the outside was a once-a-year supply boat.

Gavin’s primary function was to check and report on populations of fur-bearing animals in that remote region, in order to give Hudson’s Bay’s home office an estimate of the coming year’s harvest.

But Gavin was many other things to the Canadian Natives that he befriended — doctor, teacher and counselor. During his Arctic years, he also compiled an English-Eskimo dictionary, which is still in use today.

Gavin also was the first to locate the breeding grounds of the elusive Ross’ goose.

In the early 1940s Gavin spent two years gathering information for the province of Alberta on waterfowl and other wildlife in the Athabasca Delta area. Then, in 1945, he joined Ducks Unlimited, Canada, a conservation group, as provincial manager for Saskatchewan.

Gavin remained with Ducks Unlimited for 24 years, the final two decades as general manager for all of Canada. In 1969, he retired.

Conservationist comes to Alaska

ARCO Chairman and CEO Robert O. Anderson persuaded the naturalist to survey, study and report on wildlife and the environment of Alaska’s North Slope. Equally important, Gavin was to recommend ways to minimize the negative impact of oilfield operations there.

When Gavin first went to the North Slope in 1969, very little of substance was known about the area’s wildlife and environment. Through his work, this quickly changed.

“Every time we wanted to build something, Angus would inspect the area,” recalled Landon Kelly, one of the first operations managers appointed to lead development of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. “He would then tell us if we had to (avoid) any wildlife or nests with the construction.”

At a time when the environmental movement was a fledgling concept and virtually unknown in Alaska, Kelly said ARCO tried really hard to protect the environment through Gavin’s work.

When the zoologist completed his extensive 10 years of studies in 1978, Gavin summarized his findings as follows:

“Although the development of an oil field at Prudhoe Bay and the building of a pipeline to Valdez, together with all the other attendant activities, have at times disrupted and disturbed some of the wildlife within the area, this should not have any lasting or detrimental effects.

“With major construction work over for the present, more normal conditions now prevail, although our surveys over the years have shown that most species of wildlife adapt quite readily to changing environmental conditions.”