JIP takes proactive stance on marine mammal protection

Back when air guns were first being tested on marine seismic surveys, concern about the impact on marine life was minimal. Air guns were cheap and reliable and eliminated the need for more intrusive explosive charges.

Fast-forward 20 or so years, and air guns, along with other manmade marine noise, are coming under intense scrutiny by environmental groups and, increasingly, regulatory agencies. Armed with the knowledge that regulations might be enacted without proper research and also that if damage really was happening to the animals, it was the industry’s responsibility to mitigate it, a group of companies, members of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP), began an effort to bring the industry together to find a solution.

It took a long time to rally the troops, but it was important to seek collaboration through an industry research group. This research group later became a joint industry program (JIP) under the auspices of OGP.

Figure 1. Bottlenosed dolphins are one of many marine mammal species potentially affected by seismic activity. (Photo courtesy of Dan Costa)

The JIP was formed to help increase scientific knowledge about marine mammal sound issues. “There are more than 100 different species of marine mammals in the world with more than 20 just in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM),” said John Campbell, OGP’s technical director and the JIP’s program coordinator. “We know the hearing range of fewer than 20 of them. We need to expand that database.”
And any given species can be doing a variety of things — feeding, migrating, breeding, calving, resting, etc. It would be helpful to know if seismic activity causes behavioral changes that might affect these patterns, but research is scant.

Knowing the information could help with risk assessments, Campbell said. “We want to analyze our operation, put it in the perspective of the animal population, and try to make some scientific risk-based decisions on mitigation if it’s needed,” he said.

Research underway
After an initial scoping period in 2005, the actual research contracts (Phase 2) began in 2006 and went through last year.

“The oil companies are not doing the research,” Campbell said. “We’re simply pointing out where we have significant knowledge gaps. Well-respected marine mammal researchers from around the world actually carry out the research.” Given the successes of Phase 2, Phase 3 is now underway, extending the research further. However, several participants from Phase 2 did not re-up, meaning that the extended research Phase is being funded with US $11 million vs. the $25 million dedicated to Phase 2. The JIP members hope to encourage more companies to participate.

So far promising research includes satellite tagging of whales to track their behavior.

More research is being done into understanding just how marine mammals hear. For instance, a computer 3-D model of a minke whale’s ear has been developed to simulate its reaction to different frequencies.

A field test in a Norwegian fjord will determine just how pervasive air gun noise is. While geophysicists know how to direct the sound down into the subsurface, little is known about how the high frequencies propagate laterally.

Figure 2. A humpback whale breaches near a coastline. These whales will be the focus of a study on soft airgun starts. (Photo courtesy of the Humpback Whale Acoustics Research Collaborative)

Finally, much research is taking place into passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). For example, one non-JIP project has set up PAM sensors in the northeast to alert LNG tankers to the presence of right whales. Setting up several of these sensors and mooring them to buoys can help them triangulate to locate the whale’s location and then warn the incoming or outgoing ships.

PAMGuard
One of the most exciting developments to emerge is a software package called PAMGuard. This software takes the information from PAM sensors and provides an interface to people on the ships to locate marine mammals by the sounds they make underwater.

This is an extremely important development in marine seismic. Currently vessels are required to have trained “spotters” on board who look for whale activity in the area. In poor visibility, choppy seas, or darkness, this task is difficult.

Knowing the location of the animals becomes particularly important at night. If an air gun needs to be shut down at night, many countries will not allow it to be started up in the morning without PAM. Other countries require a slow or soft start, where the guns are slowly ramped up to their full acoustic output. The assumption is that the animals, if bothered by the sound, will be given ample time to leave the vicinity before the noise reaches its peak level. A JIP-funded four-year project in Australia will test this theory on humpback whales.

PAMGuard can be programmed to recognize the sounds of specific marine species, even in areas with a lot of other noise. This is not an easy challenge, Campbell said, and early versions of PAMGuard had their issues. But the software has been designed as open-source and can be downloaded for free. JIP members encourage everyone to download it, tweak it, and improve it.

Already the use of the program has paid dividends. CGGVeritas recently conducted a marine survey P using PAMGuard and said it saved several days in operational time because it was able to use PAM and PAMGuard to keep seismic operations running smoothly.

Campbell said that PAMGuard will be very helpful as industry continues to protect marine life during operations. “There’s a great deal of pressure from non-industry groups to restrict our activities, not on the basis of demonstrable effects but on the basis that we cannot prove we will never have an effect.”

He added that the JIP has invested quite heavily in the technology. “We now have what we think is a fairly robust system that will allow us to detect animals at quite considerable ranges and will provide the confidence that regulators need to allow us to continue to operate at night.”

The system is not perfect, he added, since it can only detect animals that are actually making noise during the survey. But the JIP has been heavily promoting the use of the software throughout industry and with geophysical contractors to help make improvements. With the requirement of many governments to use PAM during seismic surveys, Campbell thinks the addition of PAMGuard makes good sense. And it can save time.

“If it’s saving time, it’s saving money, and it also means we’re putting less sound into the environment,” he said.

For more information, visit www.pamguard.org.