Polar Bear Killed By BP Security Guard in Arctic in "Hazing" Operation

Bp is armed and dangerous watch out polar bears... geez can i haze BP too

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/08/25/bp-kills-polar-bear

Times Live...

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BP kills polar bear

Sapa-AP | 25 August, 2011 08:32

Photo: A polar bear. File picture

Image by: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERS

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A BP spokesman says a security guard at an Alaska oil field fatally shot a polar bear after the animal approached employee housing.

Spokesman Steve Rinehart says the unidentified guard employed by Purcell Security thought he was firing a bean bag round at the bear at Endicott Oil Field on the North Slope. Instead, he shot the animal with a "cracker round," which Rinehart says makes a loud noise and lights like a firecracker.

The spokesman says the bear was shot Aug. 3 and died a few days later.

Rinehart says it's the first time a polar bear was shot and killed on BP's operations in Alaska. He says the guard was trying to protect people, not hurt the bear.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife didn't comment when asked by KTUU-TV about its investigation into the shooting.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-polarbear-bp-alaska-idUKTRE77O7OV201...

Reuters UK...

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Polar bear death at BP oil field under investigation

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:46pm BST

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(Reuters) - Federal authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a polar bear at an Alaska oil field operated by BP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the oil company said on Thursday.

The female bear was shot in early August by a security guard working for a BP contractor and died of its wounds about 11 days later, the agency and BP officials said.

BP said the guard had been trying to ward off the bear rather than kill it and believed he was firing nonlethal ammunition.

It appeared to be the first time since oil began flowing from Alaska's North Slope in 1977 that a polar bear was accidentally killed at a petroleum facility there, said Bruce Woods, Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Alaska.

"We're taking this investigation very seriously and hope to find out what happened," Woods said.

Polar bears, considered to be at risk because the Arctic sea ice they depend upon is dwindling, are listed as threatened with extinction under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. They are also managed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which generally forbids hunting of the animals.

BP, like other oil operators in Alaska's Arctic, holds a special permit allowing "nonlethal harassment" of polar bears, allowing the company to scare them away from facilities or otherwise cause them to change their movements, Woods said.

BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the security guard appeared to have killed the bear by mistake. The guard believed his gun was loaded with beanbag-type devices used to ward polar bears away from facilities, Rinehart said. Instead, the gun apparently was loaded with pyrotechnic shells, he said.

The shooting occurred at the Endicott oil field, where the bear was prowling along a causeway toward employee housing, Rinehart said. Before turning to a weapon, the guard tried using lights and noises, but the bear seemed unfazed and remained fairly aggressive, Rinehart said.

After being shot, the bear moved from the immediate area but remained in the general vicinity, where BP guards monitored the animal, he said. The bear eventually died on a nearby island on August 14 or 15, he said.

Polar bears, which dwell along Alaska's Arctic coastline, occasionally cross through oil fields on the North Slope. In accordance with federal laws and regulation, the bears are monitored by the field operators.

BP recorded 541 polar bear sightings between 2005 and 2010, Rinehart said. Of those cases, 159 required some level of hazing, he said. There is one other documented case of a polar bear dying at an oil facility.

In 2002, BP alerted federal officials because a polar bear lingering around the Endicott field appeared to be starving and in distress, Rinehart said. A federal biologist eventually euthanized the animal, he said.
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(Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/08/bp-guard-shoots-kills-polar-bear

Mother Jones...

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BP Guard Shoots, Kills Polar Bear

—By Kate Sheppard

Thu Aug. 25, 2011 12:30 PM PDT
longhorndave/Flickr

Oil companies have gotten a bad rap for hating on polar bears, both for warming up their environment and for opposing efforts to protect the bears under the Endangered Species Act. But the oil giant BP one-upped everyone on that front this week, as it came to light that a security guard at the company's oil field in Alaska's North Slope shot and killed a polar bear earlier this month.

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Via Alaska Dispatch:

The death appears to have been accidental, according to BP Alaska spokesman Steve Rinehart, who said the guard thought he'd fired a bean bag round at the female bear but BP later discovered it was a "cracker shell" that mortally wounded her.

The polar bear death is the first time in 35 years of working on the North Slope that a bear has been killed by a security guard working for BP, Rinehart said.

"We dearly wish it had not happened," Rinehart said, "but it's not a trend or a population impact. We have worked safely and carefully around polar bears under strict guidance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

Polar bears are considered a "threatened species," while not officially on the "endangered" list. But it's still illegal to kill them. The US Fish and Wildlife Service says they are investigating the shooting. Bill Snape, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, said the group is looking into their legal options for pursuing this if the federal government doesn't prosecute.

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http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/25/304725/bp-kill-polar-bear/

Think Progress Green...

BP Security Guard Shoots, Kills Polar Bear |

A security guard shot and killed a polar bear at a BP facility in Alaska’s North Slope this month after the bear approached the company’s employee housing units. The guard is calling the incident an accident, saying he thought he was firing a bean bag round, not a lethal projectile.

It’s illegal to kill polar bears as they are a “threatened species,” and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the shooting.

The Center for Biological Diversity is also looking into potential legal action if the federal government does not prosecute. “We dearly wish it had not happened,” a BP spokesperson said, “but it’s not a trend or a population impact.”

BP and other oil companies, however, are contributing the deaths of polar bears indirectly as climate change destroys their habitat.