An oil and gas consortium has agreed to suspend this summer's planned seismic testing off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, the only feeding area for the critically endangered Western gray whale.

The decision by Sakhalin Energy, which is developing the Sakhalin II project, followed a recommendation by an international scientific panel to halt further noisy seismic testing in the whales' feeding area near Piltun Bay on the western edge of the Sea of Okhotsk. The agreement was reached during a meeting of the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel recently in Geneva. Convened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the 11-member panel of scientists met with representatives of Shell, Sakhalin Energy, Russian government officials, project lenders and environmental NGOs to review the most recent science on the whales.

New research shows significant decline in sightings and behavior changes of the whales in their primary feeding area near Piltun Bay. Oil and gas exploration activities in the area appear to have displaced the whales to deeper areas offshore, making it more difficult for whale calves to feed. Since the Western gray whale only feeds in the summertime, such displacement could be devastating to the struggling whale population. The Western gray whale is one of the world’s most endangered whale populations and feed only in the summer at the very time and place used by oil and gas companies to conduct their development activities before severe winter weather again closes in around the northeastern part of the oil-rich Sakhalin shelf.

However, while Sakhalin Energy has agreed to a moratorium on seismic exploration near Piltun Bay this summer, that does not mean that the feeding ground will be quiet enough for the whales to eat and for mothers to teach their calves to forage near the mouth of the bay. Other energy companies that have not joined in the panel process are continuing with their noisy development activities - they include international giants BP and Exxon.