The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from SAExploration Inc. for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to a proposed oil and gas exploration seismic survey program in Cook Inlet, Alaska between April 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization to SAE to incidentally take marine mammals, by Level B harassment only, during the specified activity. Comments and information must be received by NMFS no later than April 20, 2015.

Click here for Federal Register notice of this proposed IHA.

NOAA/NMFS has developed draft guidance for assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammal species under their jurisdiction. This draft guidance has already been peer reviewed and subject to public comment once.

According to NOAA/NMFS:

“the U.S. Navy recently (January 2015) provided NOAA with a technical paper describing their proposed methodology for updating auditory weighting functions and subsequent numeric thresholds for predicting auditory effects (TTS/PTS thresholds) on marine animals exposed to active sonars and other active acoustic sources utilized during Navy training and testing activities.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued a Notice of Public Open House Informational Meetings for the Geological and Geophysical Permitting Process on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. The meetings will provide citizens an overview of the geological and geophysical permitting process and provide citizens an opportunity to learn and comment on BOEM’s geological and geophysical activities on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. BOEM will hold public open house informational meetings in March and April 2015. The open house meetings will demonstrate the G&G permitting process through a poster session.

The following public open house meetings are planned for the G&G permitting process:

In August 2014, CRE published an article by William Y. Brown, the Chief Environmental Officer of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. This article responded to environmental group attacks on BOEM’s Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (“PEIS”) for the Atlantic, which allows seismic exploration for oil and gas in some offshore areas. This article is available here. It corrects several misstatements by the environmental groups.

Dr. Brown has written another article on seismic. His second article further clarifies BOEM’s decision to allow seismic in some Atlantic offshore areas. In particular, he reiterates BOEM’s conclusion: “To date, there has been no documented scientific evidence of noise from air gun geological and geophysical (G&G) seismic activities adversely affecting animal populations.”

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has published regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act governing the unintentional taking of marine mammals, incidental to training operations at the Brant Island Bombing Target (BT–9) and Piney Island Bombing Range (BT–11) located within the Marine Corps’ Cherry Point Range Complex in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina from March 2015 to March 2020. These regulations allow NMFS to issue a Letter of Authorization for the incidental take of marine mammals during the Marine Corps’ specified activities and timeframes, set forth the permissible methods of taking, set forth other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, and set forth requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of the incidental take.

ESR is publishing a special issue with the title “1st Century Paradigms for Measuring and Managing the Effects of Anthropogenic Ocean Noise.” The Journal’s website provides the following description of this special issue:

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application from Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. for an Incidental Harassment Authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to offshore exploration drilling on Outer Continental Shelf leases in the Chukchi Sea, Alaska. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to Shell to take, by Level B harassment only, 12 species of marine mammals during the specified activity. NMFS must receive any comments and information no later than April 3, 2015.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this Shell IHA application.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application from Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. for an Incidental Harassment Authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to ice overflight surveys in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Alaska. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to Shell to take, by Level B harassment only, seven species of marine mammals during the specified activity. NMFS must receive any comments and information no later than April 2, 2015.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of Shell’s IHA application.

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have published proposed rules that revise and add new requirements to regulations for exploratory drilling and related operations on the Outer Continental Shelf seaward of the State of Alaska.

At the same time, BOEM and BSEE have published a draft Environmental Assessment for the proposed Arctic drilling rules.

Comments on both the proposed rules and the draft EA are due to BSEE and BOEM on or before April 27, 2015.

Click here to read the proposed Arctic Drilling Rules.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from Apache Alaska Corporation for authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to Apache’s proposed oil and gas exploration seismic survey program in Cook Inlet, Alaska, between March 1, 2015, and February 29, 2020. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letters of Authorization to Apache to incidentally harass marine mammals. Comments and information must be received by NMFS no later than March 25, 2015.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this proposed LOA.