The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has published a “Peer Review Process Manual,” which is available here
On page 2, BSEE’s Peer Review Process Manual explains the importance of OMB’s Peer Review Bulletin:
DHI has sent out the following press release:
“(dhigroup.com) is running a course in end of September on Risk Assessment of Environmental Noise Impacts, which is available for booking.
The impacts of underwater noise on marine mammals have become an increasingly important issue for marine industries such as dredging, shipping, wind farm operations and oil and gas exploration and production. Noise assessments, investigating impacts on marine mammals are required for many marine activities with Regulators being increasingly aware of the issues as well.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application from Neptune LNG LLC for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to maintenance, repair, and decommissioning activities at its liquefied natural gas deepwater port off the coast of Massachusetts. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to Neptune to take, by Level B harassment only, fourteen species of marine mammals during the specified activity. NMFS must receive any comments and information no later than September 26, 2016.
The U.S. Department of the Navy published its Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Supplemental Overseas Environmental Impact Statement for
Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) Sonar. The Navy is accepting public comment on its draft SEIS until
October 11, 2016. The Navy expects to complete its final SEIS by June 2017.
This draft SEIS is noteworthy because it relies on “NOAA. (2016a): Document containing proposed changes to: NOAA draft guidance for assessing the
22 effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammal hearing; Underwater acoustic threshold 23 levels for onset of permanent and temporary threshold shifts. Silver Spring, MD: NOAA. 24 Retrieved from http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/acoustics/draft_guidance_march_2016_.pdf .”
NMFS has conducted four peer reviews of its Acoustic Guidance. In each and every instance it has failed to comply with OMB’s regulations dealing with HISA’s (Highly Influential Scientific Assessments. Doing more is different from doing right.
Here is a detailed accounting of the NMFS Peer Review f violations.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to Bay State Wind LLC to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to high-resolution geophysical and geotechnical survey investigations associated with marine site characterization activities off the coast of Massachusetts in the area of the Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental. This IHA is effective August 13, 2016, through August 12, 2017.
NMFS continues to use 160 dB as the effects threshold for behavioral effects, and the IHA includes some discussion of NMFS’ current thinking on behavioral effects. NMFS states in response to Marine Mammal Commission comments:
Intelligent Ocean Ltd (http://www.intelligentocean.com/) is running the following training courses during September in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, UK for which there are spaces available.
- Introduction to Passive Acoustic Monitoring 12th September 2016 (there is an online training component to this course that must be completed before this practical day)
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee Marine Mammal Observer Training for UK – 13th September 2016
- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Protected Species Observer Training for Gulf of Mexico, USA – 14th September 2016
To book a place use the online booking system at this link
http://www.intelligentocean.com/booking.php
NOAA/NMFS has published a final new document the agency calls Technical Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing—Underwater Acoustic Thresholds for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts.
According to NOAA/NMFS, this document:
“provides acoustic thresholds for onset of permanent threshold shift (PTS) and temporary threshold shifts (TTS) in marine mammal hearing for all sound sources. It is intended to be used by NOAA analysts and managers, other federal agencies, and other relevant user groups/stakeholders to better predict how a marine mammal’s hearing will respond to sound exposure. The manner of response has the potential to trigger certain requirements under one or more of NOAA’s statutes (MMPA, ESA, and National Marine Sanctuaries Act).”
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an incidental harassment authorization to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF), to incidentally take, by level B harassment, 44 species of marine mammals, and to incidentally take, by Level A harassment, 26 species of marine mammals, during three marine geophysical (seismic) surveys in the southeast Pacific Ocean. This Authorization is effective from August 1, 2016, through July 31, 2017.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to Fairweather, LLC. NMFS issued this IHA under regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It authorizes Fairweather to take, by harassment, small numbers of 12 species of marine mammals incidental to an anchor retrieval program in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, Alaska, during the open-water season of 2016.
