Endangered Species Coalition

Cast Your Vote for Species Most Impacted by Fossil Fuels

The Endangered Species Coalition is preparing a new report highlighting the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and transportation on protected species. And we want your input!

Which species do you most want to see profiled? Select from the list below and then click on submit at the bottom of the page.

We'll highlight the species that receives the votes in our annual Top Ten Report.

	Short-tailed Albatross or Steller’s Albatross The population ranges from Japan east to the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska and south to California. Human-induced threats include contamination from oil spills as the feeding areas of the short- tailed albatross are in the North Pacific Alaska area. An oil spill can be a direct threat to the feeding grounds of the short-tailed albatross.
	American Burying Beetle The American burying beetle once occurred in 35 central and eastern states and Canada. Lost from more than 90 percent of its range, it is found today only in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Rhode Island. There are attempts to reintroduce the species in Ohio and Massachusetts. The XL Keystone Pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands in Canada all the way to the Texas coast would gravely threaten most of the beetle’s current population.
	Beluga Whale Beluga whales inhabit arctic and subarctic waters in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. They are found in open ocean, continental shelf, coastal, estuary, and river waters. Within Alaska, there are five populations: Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, eastern Bering Sea, eastern Chukchi Sea, and Beaufort Sea. Spending their lives in Arctic waters makes Beluga whales sensitive to oil company plans to drill in the Arctic. According to U.S. officials, there is no technology available to clean Arctic oil spills. An oil spill would be particularly detrimental to the Cook Inlet population, which has only 300-400 individuals. Its habitat is already impacted because it borders Anchorage, the most populated and fastest-growing watershed in Alaska.
	Bowhead whale The bowhead whale is the only baleen whale that spends its entire life in and around Arctic waters. The Alaskan population spends the winter months in the southwestern Bering Sea. The group migrates northward in the spring, following openings in the pack ice, into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. For this reason, the Bowhead whale is particularly sensitive to any Arctic oil spills—a particularly difficult and hazardous place to conduct oil clean up. U.S. government officials have stated that there is no technology available to clean up a spill in the Arctic.
	Dunes Sagebrush Lizard The dunes sagebrush lizard occurs only in shinnery oak sand dunes in four counties in southeastern New Mexico and five counties in southwest Texas. Its very limited range is threatened by oil and gas development. Scientists have found that relatively small numbers of oil and gas wells dramatically lowered dunes sagebrush lizard populations.
	Graham’s Penstemon The Graham's Penstemon occurs only in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and the very edge of northwestern Colorado. Its entire population is restricted to scattered and tiny pockets found exclusively on exposed surfaces of oil shale, which are under threat of development.
	Greater sage-grouse Currently found in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, eastern California, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming, the USFWS estimates that the Greater Sage Grouse has declined 69-99 percent. Energy development such as oil drilling impacts Greater Sage Grouse mating, nesting, brood-rearing, and survival.
	Indiana bat Indiana bats are found in New England, Midwest, Great Lakes States, Ohio River Valley, Southern Appalachians. Conventional surface coal mining, and mountaintop removal mining, completely destroys stream corridors and their forest habitats, which are critical to the bat’s survival. Blasting that accompanies coal mining disturb bat caves. These energy impacts are now compounded by the introduction and spread of White Nose Syndrome in the bat populations.
	Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle’s geographic range is limited to the Gulf of Mexico and coastal waters of the East Coast of the U.S. This turtle was one of the most highly impacted by the BP oil spill as the oil covered the primary feeding ground. Hundreds of turtles, particularly juveniles who spend more time at the sea’s surface, were killed by the spill.
	Kentucky Arrow Darter The Kentucky arrow darter is found only in six counties—in the Appalachian Mountain coalfields of eastern Kentucky. It has been extirpated from more than half of its historic range. It is severely threatened by coal mining, which permanently alters stream quality. Unfortunately, the threat is not localized but widespread across the species’ small range.
	Loggerhead Sea Turtle In the Atlantic, the loggerhead turtle's range extends from Newfoundland to as far south as Argentina. The major nesting concentrations in the United States are found from North Carolina through southwest Florida. Some nesting occurs westward to Texas and northward to southern Virginia. Loggerhead sea turtles at all life stages appear to be highly sensitive to oil spills.Oil effects include increased egg mortality and developmental defects, direct death due to oiling in hatchlings, juveniles and adults, and impacts to the skin, blood, salt glands, and digestive and immune systems.
	North Pacific Right Whale The North Pacific right whale can be found from Baja California to the Bering Sea with the highest concentrations in the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Okhotsk Sea, Kuril Islands, and Kamchatka area. Oil and gas exploration and production in the highly endangered right whale's range could threaten the species' survival as a result of oil spills, other pollution, ship collisions and noise. Collisions with commercial ships are the greatest threat to North Atlantic right whales.
	Northern Sea Otter Currently sea otters can be found in Alaska, Russia, British Columbia, Washington state, and California. Sea otters are at high risk in the case of an oil spill due to the proximity to oil and gas development, the high percentage of time they spend floating at the water surface, grooming their fur and potentially ingesting oil. Additionally, all sea otters now in existence are descendants of a fairly small number of exploitation era survivors. Consequently, there is little genetic diversity among sea otter populations, making them particularly vulnerable to disease or sudden environmental change. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill devastated the sea otter population in Prince William Sound. The sea otter is one of several species still being affected by the lingering oil in the area.
	Pacific Herring Different populations of Pacific Herring are found throughout coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean. In the eastern North Pacific, they range from Baja California north to the Beaufort Sea. They occupy the water column from the surface to depths of 1300 feet. The Pacific Herring population in Prince William Sound collapsed in 1993, 4 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The cause has yet to be determined and the population has shown little sign of recovery. The Cherry Point Herring are exposed to risk from ongoing toxic waste discharge, vessel traffic, and accidental spills from two oil refineries (British Petroleum and Conoco-Phillips), one aluminum refinery (Intalco), and a proposed shipping terminal.
	Pacific Walrus The Pacific Walrus exists in the shallow continental shelf waters of the Bering and Chukchi seas. Walruses often flee “haul outs” or resting areas en masse in response to the sight, sound, and especially odors from humans and machines. Walruses depend on hauling out to molt, grow new hair, whelp, nurse young, and rest. Females with young are the most responsive to noise disturbance and the potential for harm from disturbance probably is greatest when it causes separation of females from their dependent young. Early abandonment, especially in the first year of nursing, probably results in starvation of the calf.
	Polar Bear In the United States, polar bears occur throughout the northern polar region including the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and even into the Bering Sea in winter. Polar bears, already struggling from the loss of their sea-ice habitat, face threats from ongoing and imminent oil and gas development in the Arctic. Aside from global-warming-fueled sea ice melt, which is directly tied to the use of fossil fuels, the most severe threat to polar bears comes from oil spills. Polar bears that come into contact with oil will likely die. There is no way to clean up an oil spill in icy Arctic waters, and any sort of response may be impossible during certain times of year. That means there is a potential for a large-scale oil spill over many months, if not years.
	Spectacled Eider The Spectacle eider is found on the central coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska, the Arctic Coastal Plain of Russia, and St. Lawrence Island. Between 1957 and 1992, the Western Alaskan population of Spectacled Eiders dropped 96%. Oil and gas development in this area would be affecting the only habitat for an already dwindling population – due to hunting, dwindling food supply and increased pollutants. The threat of oil and gas development in Teshekpuk Lake, known as a world-class ecosystem, is a possible threat to the Spectacled Eiders’ future. Representative Doc Hastings’ legislation to drill in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska could do exactly that – open up the most sensitive areas like Teshekpuk Lake to drilling and lead to the downfall of threatened species.
	Stellar's Eider The range of Steller’s eiders is the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska and Russia. Alaska’s breeding population occurs in two distinct regions, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska, where only a few birds may nest, and the Arctic Coastal Plain, primarily near Barrow. Steller’s Eiders seem to be declining; however, conservationists and scientists do not know why. Disturbance and loss of nesting habitat due to oil and gas development threaten the Steller’s Eider, such as Izembek Lagoon and Bristol Bay An oil spill could be devastating.
	Tan Riffleshell The Tan Riffleshell can be found in very limited numbers in eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia. The specific threat that led to the species’ listing in 1977 was water quality degradation resulting from mine acid and municipal wastes. At this point, these impacts still remain, along with water pollution and sedimentation from coal mining and industrial sources. The extent to which the species is affected by the coal industry is notable, in that the species is directly impacted by acid mine drainage and sedimentation from coal mining, as well as sulfuric acid and heavy metal contamination from coal ash landfills.
	Wyoming Pocket Gopher The Wyoming pocket gopher can be found only in a small geographic area roughly 25 miles by 100 miles in Sweetwater and Carbon Counties in Wyoming. Oil and gas development and the construction of associated infrastructure has been identified as the single greatest threat to Wyoming pocket gophers. As of October, 2010, only 31 Wyoming pocket gophers had been documented as existing since its discovery.

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