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NMFS looking for new IHA strategy Agency wants a more comprehensive approach to the planning of marine mammal monitoring during offshore industrial operations Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The National Marine Fisheries Service wants to move towards a more comprehensive strategy for monitoring the impacts of offshore oil and gas activities on marine mammals in Arctic Alaska, Jolie Harrison, the agency’s Office of Protected Resources’ incidental take team supervisor, told the agency’s annual Arctic Open Water Meeting on March 6.
The Fisheries Service, often referred to as NMFS, is responsible for the protection of whales, porpoises and seals under the terms of the Marine Mammals Protection Act, or MMPA. The act prohibits the “take” of marine mammals, a prohibition that can apply to any form of disturbance ranging from the disruption of a behavior pattern to the death of an animal.
However, an oil company operating in the offshore can avoid an MMPA violation by obtaining an approval from NMFS for the unintentional take of small numbers of marine mammals. The take must not involve serious or fatal injuries, and the authorization generally spells out mitigation measures that the company must implement to avoid unacceptable levels of wildlife disturbance. An applicant for an incidental take authorization also has to propose a marine mammal monitoring program that will result in the gathering of information to enable a better understanding of the impacts of activities on the mammals, Harrison said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service operates a parallel “incidental take” program for polar bears and walruses.
Key step The securing of an incidental take authorization is a key step in the preparation for conducting an offshore activity such as a seismic survey or the drilling of a well.
NMFS issues incidental take authorizations on a project-by-project basis, applying mitigation and mammal monitoring measures that have evolved over time, based on experience from earlier projects and on new scientific information about marine mammal behavior.
The agency now wants to develop a more comprehensive strategy that assembles available marine mammal data; facilitates the collaborative monitoring of animal behavior; encourages the sharing of information; and monitors the combined impacts of multiple activities, Harrison said. Key components of this strategy would include soliciting input from stakeholders in the Alaska Arctic offshore, as well as compiling and sharing information gleaned from marine mammal monitoring during offshore operations.
The issues that Harrison raised are also discussed in an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, that NMFS is preparing for the impact of oil and gas activities in the Arctic Ocean. The agency recently solicited public comments on a draft version of that document.
In the past, NMFS has obtained recommendations for marine mammal monitoring plans from the agency’s annual Arctic Open Water Meetings and from peer reviews of companies’ proposed monitoring plans, the draft EIS says. But comments from the Open Water Meetings tend to be unfocussed and broad in nature, while peer review comments tend to just be recommendations for modifications to what a company has proposed doing, the document says.
Focused priorities “What is missing is focused prioritization of needs and guidance to applicants in advance of their development of their initial (incidental take) applications,” the draft EIS says.
A more comprehensive strategy would consider multiple activities across multiple years; developing and maintaining a set of monitoring priorities; recommendations for monitoring projects; and a list of monitoring data gaps for Arctic oil and gas development projects, the draft EIS says.
This type of approach would, among other things, help NMFS in providing guidance on monitoring needs and methods for applicants for incidental take authorizations — guidance to applicants is mandated under the agency’s regulations, Harrison said.
Possible ways of achieving the strategy could include the formation of a group to help design and implement a framework for strategy implementation, and the development of a website for the dissemination of monitoring results, Harrison said.
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