The World Wildlife Fund is asking Russia to stop Exxon from testing for oil off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, charging that the seismic surveys are driving Western Pacific gray whales from their feeding grounds. “The sooner the seismic work is finished, the more time whales will have to feed again normally and rebuild their fat reserves before they start their southward migration,” said WWF’s Vasily Spiridonov in a statement. The group accused Exxon of abusing a loophole in Russian environmental law to move forward with the testing. It wants Russia to end the testing by tomorrow and to designate a whale reserve in the area, prohibiting seismic testing in feeding grounds.
