SAExploration seeks IHA for Beaufort

Eric Lidji

SAExploration Inc. has applied for an incidental harassment authorization for a 3-D seismic survey scheduled for the upcoming open water season in the Beaufort Sea.

The authorization would allow the seismic company to accidentally disturb a small percentage of various marine mammal species in the region, including beluga whales.

The proposed survey would occur in a roughly 300-square-mile area of the nearshore waters of the Beaufort Sea between Harrison Bay and the Sagavanirktok River delta. The company expects the survey to last for 70 days between July 1 and Oct. 15.

The survey would involve a “recording patch,” which would be a group of six receiver lines and 32 source lines used to record over a given area. The company would leapfrog, to some degree, collecting information from one patch as it recorded from another. The patches would overlap considerably, as they are moved side-to-side or end-to-end.

SAExploration applied for the authorization from the National Marine Fisheries Service in early December 2014 and modified the application four times through mid-February.

The agency is taking comments on the plan through May 14.