Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Alaska Region Director Mark Fesmire traveled to Helsinki, Finland, this week for the fifth meeting of the Arctic Council’s Task Force for Oil Pollution Prevention on November 24 and 25, 2014. This task force provides an opportunity for member nation representatives to share best practices, processes, and regulatory approaches for oil pollution prevention.
On December 8, 2014, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed comments with Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. These comments were on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Environmental Management’s Information Collection Request under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The requested ICR covers information collection requirements for offshore oil and gas geological and geophysical Activities, including the use of seismic air guns. CRE’s comments made the following and other points.
CRE does not oppose this ICR because it only covers and authorizes current, time-tested monitoring and reporting requirements.
On December 8, 2014, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed Comments on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Request for Information on the Development of a Long Term Monitoring Plan for Marine Mammals in the Gulf of Mexico. CRE’s comments made the following and other points.
BOEM and NMFS should not proceed with the LTMP. BOEM and NMFS have correctly concluded that seismic and other Geological and Geophysical activities in the GOM are not hurting marine mammals under current regulation. The Government has successfully regulated GOM G&G for decades without an LTMP. There is no need for one now.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS has received an application from the U.S. Department of the Air Force, Headquarters 96th Air Base Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, requesting an Incidental Harassment Authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to a Maritime Weapon Systems Evaluation Program within the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range in the Gulf of Mexico.
Eglin AFB’s activities are military readiness activities per the Marine Mammal Protection Act, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. Per the MMPA, NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue an Authorization to Eglin AFB to take, by harassment, two species of marine mammals during the specified activity for a period of one year. Comments are due to NMFS byJan 7, 2015.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service maintains a website devoted to applications under the Marine Mammal Protection Act for authorization to engage in operations that will incidentally “take” marine mammals. This website identifies and links to applications in process at NMFS; applications that are issued and active; applications that have expired; and applications that have been withdrawn.
This website is useful for anyone interested in the record for a particular permit action.
This website is available here.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published a Second Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Outer Continental Shelf, Alaska OCS Region, Chukchi Sea Planning Area, Oil and Gas Lease Sale 193. BOEM has changed the venue for one of the public hearings on this Draft SEIS. The hearing scheduled on December 1, 2014, previously announced to occur at the Loussac Library Complex, will instead take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 109 W. International Airport Road, Anchorage, Alaska.
Click here for BOEM’s Federal Register notice of this change.
The U.S. NOAA Fisheries has a website devoted to the agency’s development of new guidance on “acoustic threshold levels for assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammal species under NOAA Fisheries’ jurisdiction.” When published, this new acoustic criteria guidance could have a significant effect on U.S. and international regulation of ocean sound. It has already been subject to peer review and public comment. NOAA/Fisheries estimates publication of this guidance “in winter 2014/ 2015.”
Click here for NOAA/Fisheries acoustic criteria website.
Brandon Southall–a marine sound expert and former NMFS scientist–is quoted by the Washington Post as criticizing recently filed NGO litigation against Navy sonar. Dr. Southall said:
“I think the numbers citing potential harm presented by the Navy and NMFS are overestimates….Overall, I think the concerns are being amplified because the conservation groups are interested in getting people’s attention, and they get it by saying these animals are all going to die….This is where the Navy is kind of damned if they do and damned if they don’t….If you assume the worst-case scenario, using models that have different levels of uncertainty. . . you wind up getting really high numbers. They get these large numbers and they get sued.”
Listed here are Marine Mammal Impact Assessments which have been assessed as meeting the standards described in the Seismic Code of Conduct to the satisfaction of the new Zealand Director-General of the Department of Conservation.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, is issuing a request for information to aid in the development of a long-term monitoring plan for marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico. According to BOEM, the LTMP will focus on the potential impacts, if any, to marine mammals from geological and geophysical data acquisition activities, including seismic surveys. Once again according to BOEM, this LTMP is a required element of BOEM’s petition for rulemaking under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Information on the LTMP is due to BOEM on or before December 8, 2014.
