The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed comments on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (“BOEM”) Information Collection Request (“ICR”) for certain activities including seismic airguns. This ICR must be approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory affairs before the ICR can be enforced. CRE’s comments made the following and other points.

• The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is cooperating with BOEM indeveloping these new monitoring requirements, which both Agencies refer to as the Long Term Monitoring Plan (“LTMP”). The requested ICR 1010-0048 does not cover and would not authorize any information collections in the LTMP.

There will be a Passive Acoustic Monitoring Course from February 9-11, 2015, in New Orleans, LA. This course provides universal PAM monitoring with kits. It provides classroom and practical boat sessions for personnel new to the offshore industry who are interested in PAM.

Modules cover:

1) Sound In Water

2) Marine Mammals

3) Anthropogenic Noise in the Sea

4) Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Marine Mammals

5) PAM Principles & the Role of the PAM Operator

6) PAM Hardware & Operations

7) PAM Software

8) PAMGuard Workshop

9) Practical PAM Session on boat session

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has announced specific dates and locations for four public hearings in Alaska, one each in Nome, Anchorage, Kotzebue, and Barrow, on NMFS’ proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the threatened Arctic subspecies (Phoca hispida hispida) of the ringed seal (Phoca hispida) under the Endangered Species Act which was published in the Federal Register on December 9, 2014. NMFS has also announced that a hearing will be held in Bethel, AK.

The specific date and location for the hearing in Bethel, AK, will be announced in a subsequently. The dates and locations for the other four hearings are as follows:

​The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s David M. Moore ​recently ​traveled to Seattle, Wash., for a meeting of the Arctic Council Emergency Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (EPPR) Working Group. The EPPR Working Group addresses various aspects of prevention, preparedness, and response to environmental emergencies in the Arctic. Working Group members, which include representatives from eight member nations, share information on best practices and conduct projects to develop guidance and risk assessment methodologies, response exercises, and training specific to the Arctic.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service seeks public comment on the deterrence provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. To inform development of these national guidelines, NMFS published a notice in the Federal Register on December 16, 2014 (79 FR 74710) to request input on which deterrents the public would like NMFS to evaluate and consider for approval.
The comment period ends on January 15, 2015.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to the Northeast Gateway® Energy Bridge TM, L.P., and Algonquin Gas Transmission, L.L.C., to take, by harassment, small numbers of 14 species of marine mammals incidental to operating, maintaining, and repairing a liquefied natural gas port and the Algonquin Pipeline Lateral facilities, in Massachusetts Bay, between December 22, 2014, through December 21, 2015. This IHA is effective through December 21, 2015. It is issued pursuant to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. Click here to read Federal Register notice of this IHA.

The following paper will be published: Merchant, N.D., Fristrup, K.M., Johnson, M.P., Tyack, P.L., Witt, M.J., Blondel, P., Parks, S.E. (2015). Measuring acoustic habitats. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. This paper reviews methods for monitoring acoustic habitats, both terrestrial and aquatic, and includes codes in MATLAB and R to produce calibrated acoustic measurements. A pre-proof version is available here.

This paper’s abstract follows:

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration /National Marine Fisheries Service requests comments on its proposed extension of a currently approved Information Collection Request under the Paperwork Reduction Act. This proposed ICR collects information relevant to NOAA’s regulations under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

This request is for a representative of a group of potential permit applicants, rather than requiring each entity to apply for and receive a permit. The required information is used to evaluate the impacts of the proposed activity on endangered species, to make the determinations required by the ESA prior to issuing a permit, and to establish appropriate permit conditions.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service recently published a Semiannual Regulatory Agenda that provides a revised rulemaking schedule for NMFS’ Marine Mammal Protection Act Permit Regulation Revisions. These rules would revise the implementing regulations governing the issuance of permits for activities under section 104 of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The intent of this action would be to streamline and update (using plain language) the general permitting information and the specific requirements for the four categories of permits: scientific research (including the General Authorization);enhancement; educational and commercial photography; and public display. The revisions would also simplify procedures for collection, possession, and transfer of marine mammals parts collected before the effective date of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and also clarify reporting requirements for public display facilities holding marine mammals.

Princeton emeritus professor Lincoln Hollister for years was associated with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory-managed research vessel Maurice Ewing as it maneuvered in and out of the inland waterways of southeast Alaska and British Columbia, towing seismic airguns for a project called ACCRETE.

According to an article posted in the SandPaper.Net, “Hollister…believes that it is without scientific merit to say the acoustic pulses from airguns cause excessive harm to marine mammals, fish and invertebrates….Seventy percent of Earth is under water, said Hollister, and seismic airguns are ‘the best tool’ scientists have to seek answers about, for example, the pace of sea level rise.