Seals, Geese in Dollars and Cents

To the bureaucrats in the Interior Department’s environmental protection division, the fur-bearing seal of northern Canada and Alaska is a commodity with a price tag of precisely $15.

Part of a computer model aimed at calculating the economic costs of environmental damage from toxic spills, the figure is supposed to reflect the market value of a seal pelt. Geese, on the other hand, have been assigned values of up to $35.74 each, a price derived from analyzing their popularity among hunters.

The federal government plans to use the same basic approach in assessing damage from the March 24 grounding of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Exxon will then be presented with a bill. Although Exxon has contributed $15 million for initial scientific studies, the company is not legally obligated to foot the bill.

Federal and state “trustees” appointed to oversee the damage assessment must conduct two evaluations, one to determine the cost of restoring the sound, the other to assess the value of “lost uses,” such as hunting, fishing and recreation. The final damage estimate is supposed to be based on the cheaper of the alternatives.