I’ve returned from Homer, Alaska where I was last week for the second phase of our Cook Inlet Seismic Survey monitoring project – sampling zooplankton in front of, and in the wake of the survey vessel…
Field Report from Cook Inlet II
Tag: surveys
Airgun surveys are the real gateway to Arctic Oil
Finally after a whole season of a frightening “comedy of errors,” Shell Oil has postponed a large part of their Arctic exploratory drilling project until next year. They will be building infrastructure in the time they have remaining this season,…
El Diablo on California’s Central Coast
In the early spring of this year I was apprised of a proposed seismic survey action on the California Central Coast. The project taken on by PG&E is to map the geology, fault lines, and earthquake potential of the areas…
Moves to open the Atlantic coast to fossil fuel extraction
We have just submitted our comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the “Atlantic Geological and Geophysical Activities.” The proposals reviewed in the DEIS are for the exploration and mapping of the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf for oil…
The Acoustic Ecology of Geophysical Surveys
OCR advisory board member and acoustic ecologist Jim Cummings sent us a New York Times article about life aboard geophysical research vessel (RV) Marcus G. Langseth wherein marine geologist Bernard Coakley writes about the acoustic environment aboard the vessel after…
Low level seismic survey noise interrupts Blue Whale calls
A recent publication by Lucia Di Lorio and Chris Clark reveals a significant difference in Blue Whale call behavior as a consequence of seismic survey noise generated by “sparkers” – an impulse generator which uses an electrical discharge spark to…
Increasing evidence of Seismic Survey impacts on marine life
An article was published in the BBC News website referring to a recently published paper by Lucia Di Iorio and Christopher Clark[1] indicating that seismic surveys can interfere with Blue Whale feeding behaviors. The letter mentions that the blue whales…
Canada DFO intro
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is sponsoring a national workshop on the mitigation practices for seismic airgun exploration. This event will be attended by a whole array of marine scientists, oil and gas industry engineers, and a…
Tasmanian multi-species mass stranding – March 2, 2009
Another tragedy linked to ocean noise pollution: a multi-species stranding linked to seismic surveys. This event involved some 189 pilot whales and 10 dolphins in Naracoopa, Tasmania. For a local article see here: http://www.watoday.com.au/national/stranded-whales-herded-out-to-sea-20090303-8mom.html Tasmania has a long history of…