Seismic testing on whales

Injury to whales is an offence under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

There is evidence that as a result of seismic testing whales stop feeding, they move away erratically and at speed, changes to their acoustic behaviour, displaced from their habitat, changes to their migration patterns and any of these in Australian waters would be an offence under the above act.

The impacts of the seismic blasts can cause interruption of essential behaviours, masking signals of interest (e.g., the sounds of predators, conspecifics or prey), displacement from crucial habitat, direct physical injury including temporary or permanent hearing loss, and in extreme cases, death to the whales. 

Marine fauna observers on board seismic testing vessels to look for whales are inadequate. How can an observer on the bridge see what whales are around behind them, beside them, they can only see what is in their peripheral vision, their vision further reduces at night as visibility decreases due to low light.  There was no place on the ship from which a marine fauna observer could monitor all sides of the ship at the same time to ensure that no whales are in the vicinity and safe from harm. In previous seismic survey proposals reported that small vessels were “not conductive to effective marine mammal monitoring” and are limited when the weather is poor and low visibility.

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) which involves surveying and monitoring marine animals and environments using sound recorded using acoustic sensors have been suggested as mitigation strategies to protect whales. PAM only works when whales are communicating, and are ineffective at determining the range and bearing of animals. Whales often go for over 20 mins without calling. Seismic blasts themselves can silence whales.

PAM is ineffective because:

·       The constant noise of the seismic vessel masks whale calls (whales vocalisations are between 10-40Htz whereas vessels start at 11Htz)

·       Whales tend to vocalise less when in a feed zone, the observation area is a feeding zone

·       Many species may not be very vocal by their nature

·       Cannot detect the range and bearing of animals with accuracy and be able to determine if the animals are within the shut-down zone.

Written by Tim Hawthorne

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