ABC
News, 15
January 2019:
Oil and gas testing is
set to take place in the Great Australian Bight this year, after the national
petroleum regulator granted permission to exploration company PGS.
Environmental groups
have slammed the decision to allow seismic testing near Kangaroo Island and
Port Lincoln, while the tuna industry has questioned whether it is even likely
to go ahead.
Seismic testing involves
firing soundwaves into the ocean floor to detect the presence of oil or gas
reserves….
The National Offshore
Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) granted
permission for the testing to be done over a 30,100-square-kilometre area,
located 80 kilometres from Port Lincoln and 90 kilometres west of Kangaroo
Island.
The testing is set to
take place between September and November.
The fishing industry has
long had reservations about the impact seismic testing would have on the local
tuna industry.
PGS has been ordered not
to interfere with or displace pygmy blue whales, southern bluefin tuna, and
southern right whales…..
The Wilderness Society
has slammed the permit, saying the practice can deafen whales and even kill
smaller marine animals.
"It's obvious that
blasting massive amounts of noise constantly for months on end through a water
column in a space where animals communicate and navigate and live by sound and
sonar, it is obvious that this is going to have a terrible impact on those
animals," the environmental group's Peter Owen said.
"I fail to see how
you can actually approve this type of seismic activity in the middle of one of
the most significant whale nurseries in the world.
"It's totally
unacceptable."
The Greens say the
seismic testing is the first step to drilling in the Great Australian Bight.
"Why on Earth would
we be wanting to sink oil wells in the Great Australian Bight, put our marine
life and beaches at risk and make climate change worse," senator Sarah
Hanson-Young said.
"We've got to be
getting out of fossil fuels and transitioning to a clean, green economy."
There has been little research into the impact of
seismic testing in Australia, but Western Australian researchers have
found noise from seismic air guns significantly increased mortality in
scallops.
Commencing on
or about 1 September 2019 for an initial period of 91 days a fofeign-owned PGS survey vessel will
be operating sounding equipment 24/7 in the Bight at a seismic source pressure of est.
~2,000 pounds per square inch (psi) with the two or three arrays firing
alternately every 16.67 to 25 m, each with a maximum volume of 3260in. (See Duntroon
Multi-client 3D and 2D Marine Seismic Survey Environment Plan at pp.24-25).
This is what happened when
such testing went ahead in the Atlantic Ocean……..
Earthjustice is suing
the federal government to prevent seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean. The
process involves the blasting of shockingly powerful seismic airguns every few
seconds for hours or even days on end and can cripple or kill marine life in the
search of offshore oil or gas deposits.
Earthjustice is challenging the
administration’s actions in court, and on Feb. 20, we joined a coalition of
other conservation groups asking a
federal judge to block the start of seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic
Ocean until our case has been heard.
The tests, harmful in
their own right, are just the first step in the administration’s broader plans
to open up 90 percent of U.S. federal offshore waters to the fossil fuel
industry, despite widespread opposition from Americans across the nation.
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