July 2007
Sakhalin Energy has
completed the installation of its third and final oil and gas production
platform off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. Company officials
were jubilant at completion on July 5, but whale conservationists warn
that some of the world's most endangered whales have been driven off their
feeding grounds by the construction noise, contrary to an agreement with
the company.
An independent panel of scientists established by the IUCN-World
Conservation Union today backed concerns expressed by WWF Russia and other
environmental groups about the severe impact that high noise levels are
having on western gray whales.
Sakhalin Energy, a consortium that includes Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and
Mitsubishi, is working on the Sakhalin II oil and gas development in the
Sea of Okhotsk, northeast of Sakhalin Island.
The same waters off Sakhalin Island are the only known feeding ground for
the western gray whales, which migrate between eastern Russia and southern
China.
With about 120 animals and only 25 to 35 reproductive females, this whale
population is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species.
The Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, set up by IUCN in 2006, recommended
in April that Sakhalin Energy adopt strict criteria for the management of
noise from its construction activities.
This would require them to measure noise levels over a certain period of
time and, if necessary, mitigate noise in the whales' feeding area if such
criteria were exceeded.
In response to these recommendations, Sakhalin Energy stated it was "not
technically feasible to implement the proposed criteria" and added that
2007 construction work had been planned on criteria "successfully used in
2006."
Today, in statement from the IUCN office in Geneva, the panel said, "The
panel finds Sakhalin Energy's apparent decision to reject the noise
criteria proposed in April for the 2007 season extremely disappointing and
potentially unsafe for the western gray whale population. It has received
no new information from the company to justify its decision."
"We are especially concerned that the company appears to have decided not
to include thresholds for prolonged exposure to lower noise levels," the
panel said.
"Without more rigorous noise management and mitigation efforts on the part
of Sakhalin Energy and other companies operating in the region, their
activities may have significant long-term effects on gray whales
attempting to feed in this area," the panel warned. "Such a possibility is
of particular concern with regard to pregnant females and females with
calves."
On July 6, the day after construction was completed on the company's giant
Piltun-Astokhskoye-B, PA-B, production platform, as tall as a 30 story
building, Sakhalin Energy officials met with the environmentalists.
They presented the company's noise monitoring and whales sighting data for
the previous two weeks to representatives of WWF, the International Fund
for Animal Welfare, and the Vernadsky Foundation.
Also present at the meeting were OAO Gazprom representative and the head
of the Ocean Noise Laboratory of Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Dr. A.
Vedenev.
The meeting was arranged to respond to allegations by the environmental
organizations that excessive noise from the installation had caused the
displacement of some western grey whales from a part of their feeding
area, which Sakhalin Energy denies.
"The Sakhalin Energy Company has promised ecologists that it will finish
construction works before whales come to their feeding ground near Piltun
spit in mid-June," said Alexey Knizhnikov, WWF-Russia oil and gas program
coordinator.
"Unfortunately, the company has failed to do it," he said. "The works at
the Piltun-Astokhskaya-B platform were started two weeks after the
deadline."
Vasily Spiridonov, WWF-Russia marine and coastal projects chief
coordinator, said, "Ships that are involved in the platform construction
works make low-frequency noise that may affect healthy feeding patterns of
whales and harm their auditory system, which is crucial for their
orientation capability."
"Although it is impossible to completely eliminate the noise, we are sure
that the Sakhalin Energy Company is able to reduce the impact of the noise
on the endangered species," Spiridonov said.
Company officials said after the meeting that that was no breach of the
noise criteria adopted by Sakhalin Energy and "company's activities in
installing PA-B platform topsides had no discernable impact on the
endangered western grey whale population."
While WWF Russia said their staff had observed the disappearance of the
whales as soon as the construction barge appeared, the company said WWF
and IFAW did not present any data at the meeting, but merely expressed
their opinion that whales had left the area.
"Noise levels have not risen above the thresholds that Sakhalin Energy has
set for this operation. The acoustic buoys provide a reliable indication
of the intensity of industrial noise and the extent of its reach," says
Melanie Austin, one of the acousticians working in the north of Sakhalin
to monitor Sakhalin Energy's offshore operations.
Doug Bell, Sakhalin Energy corporate environmental manager, said,
"Sakhalin Energy has set strict noise criteria for marine activities above
which we would take action to minimize possible impacts on the whales,
including, if needed, suspension of work. However to date there has not
been any noise above these threshold levels this season."
Oil from the PA-B platform will flow through offshore and onshore
pipelines to an oil export terminal at Prigorodnoye in the south of
Sakhalin Island. Oil production from the PA-B is expected to start in
2008.
Sakhalin Energy and the NGOs have agreed to continue talking. "We might
have different understanding and interpretations, but WWF welcomes this
meetings as proof of openness," said Knizhnikov.
Grigoriy Tsidulko, IFAW's Marine Mammals Programs Coordinator, said that
though there may be differences of opinion, it was good to hear the basis
for the company's position and it was also valuable to speak to its
specialists.
The Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel recommended in April that Sakhalin
Energy adopt "dose-based approaches to managing noise from its
construction activities."
The panel said mitigation action should be taken when the level of
broadband noise received at the edge of the feeding area exceeds 130
decibels for 90 minutes.
The western Pacific population of gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, is
one of only two surviving populations of this species in the world. Both
populations were brought near to extinction by commercial whaling.
The eastern Pacific population, which migrates annually between Mexico and
Alaska/northeastern Siberia, has recovered substantially and now numbers
about 20,000 individuals, but the western Pacific population, is estimated
at only 120 individuals.
Western gray whales feed for about half the year, in the summer and
autumn, and build stores of fat to provide energy during the calving and
mating season, the IUCN panel explained, saying, "The primary feeding
grounds off Sakhalin Island are therefore of major importance for the
health and survival of the population."
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