Petitions have been filed in a US federal court as the latest round of the great Alaskan drilling fight gets underway.

Tribal governments, native whalers and environmental groups have filed two separate petitions at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to block Shell from drilling in the Beaufort Sea. The petitions argue that the US Minerals Management Service did not properly assess the impact on wildlife and subsistence hunting when approving the drilling (AP, Reuters).

Shell has already seen its plans for drilling in the Chukchi Sea delayed and later restarted. Earlier this year it withdrew ambitious drilling plans for the Beaufort sea and said it would table more modest proposals.

The decision to allow oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea in October was swiftly followed by a proposal to designate over 200,000 square miles (520,000 sq km) of Alaskan territory as ‘critical habitat’ for polar bears, further complicating the issue.

While polar bears vs drilling was a major theme during the Bush administration, the latest legal case hinges on another species. The new petitions rest on claims that the Beaufort plans will impact on the migration of the bowhead whale and those who rely on the animals for food.

They were filed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and the Native Village of Point Hope and a coalition of environmental groups

“We were really hoping for change in the federal government’s approach to America’s Arctic,” says David Dickson, Western Arctic and Oceans Program Director for Alaska Wilderness League (press release). “While the proposed critical habitat designation for the polar bear was a good step forward, this shortcut approval for Shell’s Beaufort drilling program is disappointing. It’s beginning to look like status quo in America’s Arctic.”

Shell says it is confident the Minerals Management Service will be successful in defending the case (AP).

“Shell has gone to great lengths to minimize the impact of our drilling program, including a voluntary shut-down during the fall subsistence whaling harvest of Nuiqsut and Kaktovik, installing best available discharge technology, and reducing the number of wells,” a company spokeswoman told the LA Times.

Image: Beaufort sea / Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren, NOAA Corps (ret.) / NOAA