Worse still, a rare population of grey whales have been displaced from the area where a Moliqpak oil platform has been sited.

To the ecologists, the Sakhalin oil and gas extraction projects are environmental time-bombs in the making. Collectively, they have raised the issue of safety over the resource extraction from the Sakhalin sea shelf, the construction of transportation pipelines and the gas liquefaction plant along Aniva Bay.

At the very, least, the ecologist are asking for the pipeline to be laid underground in order to minimise the risk of earthquake related damages.

Professor Vladlen Malyshev of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry warns of the dangers of laying the pipes out in the open. According to Professor Malyshev, “[The] 800 km oil pipeline [will] go in a highly seismic area over tectonic faults. The pipes laid in trenches could rupture during an earthquake in many places, leaking oil into the ground.”

“Runoffs from these places could get to the sea and fish breeding rivers,” he added.