The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced that it will cancel the two potential Arctic offshore lease sales scheduled under the current five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program for 2012-2017. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) also denied requests from Shell and Statoil for lease suspensions, which would have extended the expiration date of the leases.  Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell stated:

“In light of Shell’s announcement, the amount of acreage already under lease and current market conditions, it does not make sense to prepare for lease sales in the Arctic in the next year and a half.”

On Thursday, January 14, 2016, from 9:00 – 5:00 ET, the U.S.  National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, DC 20001, will hold its Arctic Matters Day: a public symposium. The NAS states that this event will be

“a series of lively, public-friendly presentations from top scientists and other experts who study the connections between Arctic-region changes and impacts that can affect people and places around the globe. Attendees can also explore a series of interactive exhibits and displays. The event is free and open to the public….Some of the topics/speakers at this event will include;

The second Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation
will be held from the 1st to 5th February 2016 in Portugal. Throughout the conference’s scientific sessions and exhibitions six thematic subjects will be explored:

• Future oceans: temperature changes – hypoxia acidification
• Understanding biodiversity effects on the functioning of marine
  ecosystems
• Biological invasions
• Natural resources: overexploitation, fisheries and aquaculture
• Ocean noise pollution
  Habitat loss, urban development, coastal infrastructures and marine spatial planning

Further details on the conference themes, keynote speakers, program and
training workshops can be found at www.maresconference.eu
or visit www.facebook.com/maresconference.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has announced the first meetings of its BOEM Committee on Ocean Energy Management.  This committee will meet December 8 and 9 at the National Academies in Washington, D.C.

BOEM states, “The committee will provide independent information on issues relevant to BOEM’s environmental studies and assessment activities and support discussions on relevant issues.”

This committee is comprised of the following individuals:

• Chair: Dr. Gary B. Griggs—University of California, Santa Cruz
• Peter J. Auster—University of Connecticut
• Deerin Babb-Brott—SeaPlan
• Keith R. Criddle—University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Hajo Eicken—University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Intelligent Ocean Ltd (www.intelligentocean.com) is running the
following training courses in October in Kings Lynn, UK for which there are spaces available:

• Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) Training for UK – 21st October 2015 ; and
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Protected Species Observer
  (PSO) Training for Gulf of Mexico, USA – 22nd October 2015.

To book a place please use this link.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has reviewed the Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific regional marine mammal stock assessment reports (SARs) in accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act. SARs for marine mammals in the Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific regions were revised according to new information. NMFS solicits public comments on the draft 2015 SARs. NMFS must receive any comments by December 29, 2015.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of these revised SARs.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Liberty Development and Production Plan in the Beaufort Sea Planning Area. The DPP proposes several steps. A man-made gravel production island, known as the Liberty Drilling and Production Island, would be established in Foggy Island Bay. Gravel for construction would come from a new mine west of the Kadleroshilik River. A pipeline would link the LDPI to the Badami Sales Oil Pipelin. The pipe-in-pipe pipeline would be buried along a route going south from the LPDI to the shoreline west of the Kadleroshilik River, transition to an above-ground pipeline, and continue south to tie into the existing Badami pipeline. Oil produced from the LDPI would be transported through the Badami pipeline to the existing common carrier pipeline system to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

The International Association of Geophysical contractors has announced the fourth International Conference on “The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life.” This conference will take place in Dublin, Ireland, July 10-16, 2016. This meeting follows the meetings held in Nyborg, Denmark (2007), Cork, Ireland (2010) and Budapest, Hungary (2013). These meetings brought together scientists, regulators, environmentalists, and people from industry to learn about and discuss issues related to the effects that man-made noise has on aquatic organisms. The outcome from the Nyborg meeting was a special issue of the international journal Bioacoustics (2008, volume 17:1-350), and the Cork meeting in 2010 resulted in a book entitled  ” The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life.” Another book, as a result of the Budapest meeting in 2013, will be published by Springer in early 2015.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published final rules that update important regulatory addresses and contact information for BOEM. In early 2015, many of BOEM’s headquarters’ offices moved from Herndon, Virginia to Sterling, Virginia. References in the 30 CFR part 550 regulations to the Herndon, Virginia location are updated in this rule to reflect the Sterling, Virginia location. This rule also updates other addresses in 30 CFR part 519. Also, the existing regulations contain references to the title ‘‘Associate Director,’’ which is a remnant of BOEM’s predecessor agency, the Minerals Management Service. This rule changes ‘‘Associate Director’’ to ‘‘Deputy Director’’ in the current regulations. This rule also makes other housekeeping changes, such as removing reference to a URL hyperlink for a Web page that no longer exists.

U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement noted that officials from the Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs and Office of Strategic Engagement recently met with their counterparts from Mexico’s National Agency for Industrial Safety and Environmental Protection of the Hydrocarbons Sector, known by its Spanish acronym ASEA, to discuss approaches to Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) and the development of ASEA’s forthcoming SEMS program.