Correspondence: Comments on the proposed allowance by the NMFS of incidental take of sperm whales associated with geophysical seismic surveys
April 15, 2003
Chief
Marine Mammal Conservation Division
Office of Protected Resources
National Marine Fisheries Service
1315 East-West Highway
Silver Spring MD 20910-3326
Subject: Comments of Sierra Club National Committee on Marine Wildlife and Habitat
Re: Comments on the proposed allowance by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of incidental take of sperm whales associated with geophysical seismic surveys in the Gulf of Mexico, pursuant to the call for comments in the 3 March 2003 Federal Register, Volume 68, Number 41, pages 9991-9996.
To Whom it May Concern:
These comments, on behalf of Sierra Club's 730,000 members, respond to the preliminary application and the proposed regulations governing the anticipated allowance of incidental take of sperm whales associated with geophysical seismic surveys in conjunction with exploratory activities for hydrocarbon resources in the U. S. Gulf of Mexico.
Sierra Club believes there is an insufficient basis for NMFS to find that the proposed takings would have only a negligible impact on the affected species and stocks of marine mammals, in particular the stock of sperm whales likely to be affected by these activities in the Gulf of Mexico and protected by listing under the Endangered Species Act. We therefore request that Letters of Authorization not be issued to members of the seismic industry planning to conduct these explorations under the regulations proposed by the Minerals Management Service (MMS). Any Letter of Authorization should reflect the best available science and the Precautionary Principle, allowing for a zone of safety given uncertainties.
In our view, the regulatory parameters outlined in the original Biological Opinion promulgated by NOAA last year for MMS Lease Sale 184 offered a more appropriate basis for protection of this endangered population of sperm whales, as well as other sea life in the Gulf of Mexico. We were disturbed to learn from "Oil and Gas Journal," (August 19, 2002) that the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, Houston had successfully pressured MMS and NMFS to rescind and weaken a well-founded NOAA Biological Opinion and regulatory parameters.
In just one example of the weakness of the protections offered by the new MMS proposal, it calls for only a 500-meter exclusion zone for whales around seismic operations. Yet scientist Peter Tyack of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has said that "companies engaged in offshore oil exploration adopt only minimal standards to negate the effects on marine mammals such as ceasing activity should a whale be spotted within a radius of about a kilometre" [emphasis ours].
Discussion
There is much we do not understand about how sperm whales and other cetaceans handle the increasing levels of intensity of underwater sound occurring throughout the world. The suspect sound sources operate at a bewildering variety of frequencies and intensities, making analysis of their effects complex and difficult. Accumulating evidence from many places and activities, however, suggests that critical behaviors such as feeding, breeding, and communication can be impacted in ways that actually threaten them, both individually and as populations.
Several whale strandings in recent years have been caused by or associated in time with nearby naval exercises in which extremely powerful active sonars were used.
A pair of beaked whales stranded in the Sea of Cortez in October 2002, possibly as a result of scientific seismic testing nearby.
Acoustic scientist Dr. Christopher W. Clark of Cornell University, in a January 2002 submission to the Canadian Government on possible petroleum exploration and development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, described experimental research from 20 years ago on gray whales off California that showed "obvious and dramatic avoidance responses when exposed to explosions from seismic airgun arrays" (Malme et al., 1983). Clark also described a study by Richardson et al. (1997) that showed that bowhead whales in Alaskan water almost totally avoid coming within 20 km (12 miles) of seismic airgun activity.
According to an article in the April/May 2002 "Ecologist," David Gordon describes a Russian-American group of scientists who were engaged to study the effects of seismic surveys on the highly endangered population of Western Pacific Gray whales in the waters off Sakhalin, Russia. These scientists reported that they observed a movement to the south that "occurred abruptly in early August and coincided with the start of Exxon Neftegas Ltd seismic surveys in the central to northern part of the whales' feeding habitat. In 1999 and 2000, these scientists observed so-called "skinny" whales—"severely malnourished whales that may not be able to survive migration or effectively reproduce." In a letter to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, these scientists wrote: "We believe that seismic operations have displaced whales from their preferred habitat. It is quite likely that they have been forced to use less preferred areas that may be characterized by food sources that are more limited or of poorer quality. That is, though the whales observed continued to feed, their food intake may be decreased as a result of the noted shift in distribution to the south."
Scientists and environmentalists have expressed deep concern about the effects of seismic testing and oil operations on sperm whales in United Kingdom waters and blue whales and other species off southern Australia.
Dr. Tyack of Woods Hole has described the air guns used for detecting oil deposits beneath the ocean floor as "among the loudest sounds in the ocean." Acoustic scientist Clark describes seismic exploration as "by its very nature dirty work. . .very short bursts of very high energy noise are exploded within the ocean and injected in to the earth. Those acoustic explosions are repeated over and over again, 24 hours a day, for days on end. . .They represent the most severe acoustic insult to the marine environment I can imagine short of naval warfare." While conceding that we cannot document all the impacts of such noise on marine mammals or other forms of sea life, Clark points out that the distances at which such extremely high noise can be detected by other humans are very large—and that they "drastically shrink the distances over which marine mammals can communicate."
Because marine mammals are so critically dependent on sound for virtually all their life activities, it is they who are most likely to suffer from man's noisy operations in their environment. Still, new research confirms that other marine species also are harmed by extremely loud underwater noise. Professor Arthur Popper of the University of Maryland published an important new study in the February 2003 issue of the "Journal of the Acoustical Society of America" which confirms that seismic airguns used in underwater oil exploration damage the auditory organs of fish. Popper and his colleagues, Dr/ Rob McCauley and Jane Fewtrell of Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia were surprised by the degree of such injury to fish hearing.
In summary, Sierra Club, along with numerous other conservation and marine mammal organizations, urges the National Marine Fisheries Service to hew closely to its mission to protect marine mammals and other forms of sea life from the harmful impacts of human activities to the extent possible and to require meaningful mitigation of such impacts as are unavoidable. In considering this application and others for OCS lease blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, we hope you will base your decisions in the Precautionary Principle. Appropriate measures should include such requirements as as large a zone of avoidance as is necessary to protect whales and other affected animals; appropriate geographic or seasonal restrictions; curtailment of nighttime seismic survey operations; a requirement for trained marine mammal observers and passive acoustic monitoring aboard seismic survey vessels; gradual "ramp up" introduction of sound to permit marine mammals to depart prior to commencement of full-scale geophysical operations; and discontinuation of seismic activities whenever visibility conditions deteriorate and prevent visual observations to ensure avoidance of marine mammals.
We appreciate this opportunity to comment on the proposed action.
Sincerely,
Vivian Newman, Chair
National Committee on Marine Habitat and Wildlife
Judy Olmer, Chair
Marine Mammal Working Group
Please reply to:
Judy Olmer
6420 Wishbone Terrace
Cabin John, MD 2081
|
