The U.S. National Marine Fisheries has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to the U.S. Air Force, Eglin Air Force Base, to take two species of marine mammals, the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), by harassment, incidental to a Maritime Weapon Systems Evaluation Program within the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range in the Gulf of Mexico from February 4, 2016 through February 3, 2017. NMFS has issued this IHA under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) <http://www.dosits.org> Team is facilitating a free, five-part webinar series for the international regulatory community on
topics related to underwater sound.
Two webinars took place in 2015. The first reviewed science of sound concepts, the second, sound production and reception in marine animals. Both of these webinars have been archived to the DOSITS website (http://www.dosits.org/resources/all/decisionmakers/ircwebinar/)
and are available for review. PDFs of webinar presentations, as well as full webinar summaries, with associated DOSITS links, are also available for download. You do not need to register to view archived webinars and their associated materials.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service has published its Peer Review Report: Technical Section from: NOAA Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Marine Mammal Hearing: Underwater Acoustic Threshold Levels for Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shift.
The Peer reviewers are Robert Burkard, Ph.D., University at Buffalo; Peter Dahl, Ph.D., Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington; Colleen Reichmuth, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz; and Kevin Williams, Ph.D., Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington.
On January 27, 2016, CRE filed petitions with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. CRE’s petitions asked NMFS and BOEM to comply with Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 during their development of Gulf of Mexico marine mammal Take Rules for oil and gas seismic, and during their development of Long Term Monitoring Plans as part of those Take Rules. Compliance with these Executive Orders requires supporting the Take Rules and their LTMP with a cost benefit analysis. Compliance also requires OMB review of both the draft and final cost benefit analysis, and of the rest of the draft and final Take Rules including the LTMP.
The Marine Mammal Commission and the Environmental Law Institute have collaborated with the Indigenous Peoples Council for Marine Mammals, Alaska marine mammal co-management organizations, the Alaska Federation of Natives, and Alaskan native tribal councils to develop model consultation procedures. These consultation procedures are designed to assist Alaskan Native communities in their developing their own policies and procedures to ensure meaningful and timely consultation with federal agencies on actions that may affect marine mammals or their availability for subsistence and cultural purposes.
Click here for the final HANDBOOK: Model Alaska Native Consultation Procedures.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has published notice that NMFS has initiated 5-year review of Southern Resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The purpose of these reviews is to ensure that the current ESA listing classification of a species is accurate.
The 5-year review will be based on the best scientific and commercial data available at the time of the review; therefore, NMFS requests submission of any such information on Southern Resident killer whales that has become available since their original listing as endangered in November 2005 or since the previous 5-year review completed in 2011.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a component of Columbia University, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, to take marine mammals, by harassment, in the South Atlantic Ocean, January through March 2016. This IHA was issued under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. The U.S. Marine Mammal commission commented on the proposed IHA. NMFS’ response to comments and details about the IHA are available here.
In 40 years there had been no recorded environmental harm from oil and gas seismic testing, Octanex director and lawyer James Willis told the New Zealand Petroleum Summit in Auckland.
“Given that all is involved is a ship with an airgun sailing up and down a predetermined route at slow speeds, that’s hardly surprising,” he said.
Now an operator must adhere to costly requirements including lodging a marine mammal impact assessment, have onboard a marine mammal observer and carry acoustic monitoring equipment.
He said a standard marine mammal impact assessment template for Taranaki waters should be available to operators rather than having to do an individual one each time.
The International Oil and Gas Producers E & P Sound & Marine Life Joint Industry Programme has published its first Newsletter. Click here for the Newsletter.
The International Association of Geophysical Contractors has published two responses to whether seismic surveys should be conducted off the coast of North Carolina. One response says yes. The other says no. Both provide detailed discussions of the issue. Click here to read these responses.
