The Ecology and Law Institute, which has an office in Fairbanks, is mailing questionnaires to Alaska residents asking them for their opinion on the proposal and about protection of the marine environment. A proposed sanctuary described in the questionnaire would cover a wide expanse of offshore coastal waters from Point Hope to Kotzebue Sound and waters north of the Seward Peninsula.

John Talberth, an economist with the Ecology and Law Institute's Fairbanks office, said his group is not formally proposing a marine sanctuary. But documents the group is distributing along with the questionnaires present the idea as a proposal.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the port expansion, which has been in the planning stages for years. The port is used for shipping lead and zinc concentrates from the Red Dog Mine in northwest Alaska and is now at capacity.

AIDEA also proposes to use the enlarged facility as a regional port, so that fuel could be stored in bulk quantities and transported to local villages.

The Ecology and Law Institute represents some villagers in Kivalina who are unhappy with the Red Dog Mine and the port activities.

"Marine sanctuaries have been described as national parks for the oceans, and are designed to protect breeding grounds for whales, seals and sea turtles, hot spots of marine biodiversity such as coral reefs, and sites that preserve unique cultural resources," said the documents prepared by the Ecology and Law Institute which accompanied the questionnaires.

There are 13 national marine sanctuaries in the United States, but none in Alaska, Talberth said.

NANA Regional Corp., which owns the land where the Red Dog Mine was developed, doesn't think much of the idea of a marine sanctuary in the Chukchi Sea.

"This is another example of an outside interest group with very little knowledge of our people and our economy proposing to use a vehicle to preclude choices we think we should have the opportunity to pursue," said Helvi Sandvik, president of NANA Development Corp., NANA's business subsidiary.

"A marine sanctuary is going to preclude further development and most likely impact existing development. It would cause us significant concern," said Sandvik, who is from the NANA region.

"The reality is we exist up there. If there is science that demonstrates development is jeopardizing subsistence resources, we would support coming up with mitigation measures," she said.

"Going to the extreme of precluding development puts our people in jeopardy," Sandvik said.

Heather McCarty, a Juneau-based fisheries consultant, said the term "marine sanctuary" generally describes several types of protective closures of marine areas. In its strictest form, a sanctuary would restrict any human activity, such as fishing or developing a port, she said.

Several environmental groups are pushing for marine sanctuaries in Alaska waters as a way to shut down commercial fishing, McCarty said. One proposal, covering parts of the Aleutian Islands, also would restrict recreational use.

While there are proposals for large marine sanctuaries, those that have been created in the Lower 48 are small and specific to a particular resource being protected, such as coral reefs off the Florida Keys, she said.

Information distributed by the Ecology and Law Institute support McCarty's contention.

"A coastal marine sanctuary designation typically includes important harbors, estuaries and deltas along the coast and extends up to 35 miles offshore. Within the sanctuary, high-impact activities such as dredging the ocean bottom, dumping waste and construction of piers, oil rigs and pipelines are not allowed. Subsistence use of marine mammals and fish is preserved by the marine sanctuary designation," the documents said.

The questionnaires ask for opinions on coastal protection, on the loss of jobs as a tradeoff to coastal protection and on development in sensitive coastal ecosystems.

Talberth described the survey as a "contingent valuation" survey, a method of establishing the value people place on intangibles like common property marine environment. Similar surveys have been used in litigation and accepted by the courts, he said.

In the Exxon Valdez litigation both the plaintiffs and the defense relied on contingent valuation surveys of the public to place a value of the Prince William Sound marine environment affected by the 1989 oil spill, he said. About $1 billion of the $5 billion punitive damages were based on values of the environment established through the surveys, Talberth said.

The documents distributed by the Institute of Law and Ecology describe the proposed Red Dog port expansion and note that it would allow for increased shipments of zinc and lead ore concentrates from the Red Dog Mine. It also would enhance shipments of fuel to villages in the region, the group acknowledged.

Negative impacts also are described, such as decreases in marine mammal populations, loss of marine habitat in areas used for dredging or dumping of dredged materials, and an increased risk of a major oil spill.

Jon Kurland, assistant administrator for Habitat Conservation for the National Marine Fisheries Services, said there is a lengthy public process involved in creation of a marine sanctuary.

The federal government goes through a formal review process, including an Environmental Impact Statement, and efforts are made to involve all of the people who could be affected, Kurland said.

Marine sanctuaries are usually established administratively but Congress sometimes creates sanctuaries through legislation, he said.

Sanctuaries don't have to preclude human activities, either. The management plans can be flexible enough to allow commercial shipping, fishing and coastal activities by humans, or they can prohibit such uses, Kurland said.