Maui's dolphins need seismic ban
April 2013. In a letter to New Zealand's Prime Minister, the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) urges the NZ government to immediately halt seismic testing in Maui's dolphin habitat.
Seismic surveys
With a membership of some 2,000 scientists from 60 countries, the SMM is the world's largest professional body dedicated to research on marine mammals and the ecosystems that support them.
The SMM's letter is concerned with seismic surveys off the west coast of New Zealand's North Island, which is the final refuge of the little known Maui's dolphin, the smallest and rarest dolphin on earth. The SMM states that allowing seismic testing in the dolphins' habitat may harm their hearing and push them into unprotected areas, where they are more exposed to fishing nets.
Fishing is the primary cause of death
Fishing is the primary cause of death among the last 55 surviving Maui's dolphins. Gillnets and trawling kill about nine percent of the population a year - that's 75 times more than the sustainable limit.
The SMM highlights that a proposed seismic project in the US was rejected because of its expected impact on an otherwise unthreatened population of more than 2,000 porpoises. The impact on the last 55 Maui's dolphins could be devastating.
"Allowing this seismic testing thus appears inconsistent with the New Zealand Government's stated goal of enabling this subspecies to recover," writes SMM President Professor Helene Marsh.
Seismic testing involves shooting noisy blasts of compressed air towards the ocean floor every 15-20 seconds, around the clock, for weeks or months. These airgun signals are loud enough to penetrate deep into the ocean floor to reveal buried reservoirs of oil and gas. Airgun blasts are known to affect whales, dolphins, and porpoises and can also disturb and harm the fish they feed on.
"Twenty-four cetacean species have shown negative effects to marine noise pollution," says NABU International's Head of International Species Conservation, Dr. Barbara Maas.
"Noise is a well-known stressor, not just for marine mammals. This means seismic testing is potentially dangerous, even if it doesn't kill the dolphins outright. Chronic stress can heighten susceptibility to other threats and slow down population recovery by suppressing reproduction and the immune system. It can even harm unborn dolphins prenatally, all of which Maui's dolphins can ill afford."
Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mauis-seismic.html
Showing posts with label seismic tests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seismic tests. Show all posts
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Agency stops seismic tests; worries about dolphins
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With sick and dead dolphins turning up along Louisiana's coast, federal regulators are curbing an oil and natural gas exploration company from using seismic equipment that sends out underwater pulses known to disturb marine mammals.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has told Global Geophysical Services Inc. to not conduct deep-penetration seismic surveys until May, when the bottlenose dolphin calving season ends. The agency says the surveys are done with air-guns that the emit sounds that could disrupt mother and calf bonding and mask "important acoustic cues."
The company said it laid off about 30 workers because of the restriction, which it called unnecessary.
But environmental groups suing BOEM over the use of underwater seismic equipment say restrictions should be extended to surveyors across the Gulf of Mexico.
The new limit on exploration highlights the friction over oil drilling in the Gulf since the April 20, 2010 blowout of a BP PLC well that resulted in the death of 11 workers and the nation's largest offshore oil spill in the nation's history.
After the 2010 spill, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity sued to get curbs placed on underwater seismic surveys. The environmental groups argued they harm marine mammals and that the federal government violated animal protection laws after it declared in 2004 that the surveys were safe.
The government is in settlement talks with those environmental groups, according to court documents.
"Imagine dynamite going off in your neighborhood for days, months on end," said Michael Jasny, a senior policy analyst at the NRDC. "That's the situation these animals are facing."
Jasny said the restriction placed on Global Geophysical was a good sign, but far from enough.
In its ruling, the federal agency said it was concerned that seismic surveys could affect marine mammals, and even cause them to lose their hearing.
Amy Scholik, a fisheries biologist with NOAA, said it was unknown what kind of effects air-guns have on bottlenose dolphins, but she said there was concern about possible effects on dolphin calves because they are vulnerable to stresses. She added that whales in Alaska have been shown to change migration routes because of seismic surveys.
George Ioup, a physics professor at the University of New Orleans studying the effects of air-guns on marine mammals, said the verdict was out on the effects of air-guns on mammals. He said BOEM seemed to be ruling "on the side of caution."
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