The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. (Shell) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to offshore exploration drilling on Outer Continental Shelf leases in the Chukchi Sea, Alaska. This IHA is effective July 1, 2015, through October 31, 2015.

The Federal Register notice of this action includes NMFS’ response to several critical comments on the proposed IHA. For example, NGOs commented that there

The National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences has sent the following message to
“To the Scientific Ocean Drilling Community”:

“Regional Framework Plan for Marine Seismics – OCE Communication, Early Summer 2015

OCE is carefully considering input from the marine seismic community and the UNOLS Marcus Langseth Science Oversight Committee (MLSOC) regarding ways to improve experiment planning. This advice, together with internal NSF discussions, leads us to adopt a Regional Framework Path for marine seismic data acquisition. As the NSF reply to the NRC/NAS Decadal Survey ‘Sea Change’ indicated, we are investigating options for how to support future marine seismic research, including deep crustal seismic capability. A regional approach is expected to be relevant for any feasible model, and thus we intend to get underway with a regional plan so as to understand the ramifications of operating in this mode. Moving forward, we will continue to work with MLSOC and the community at large to assess any need for adjustment.

The following report is now out: “A review of seismic mitigation measures used along the coast of northern South America, from North Brazil up to Colombia,” reference document for the MaMa CoCo SEA Steering Committee. GHFS (2015).

This report is available here.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an incidental harassment authorization to Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to ice overflight surveys in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Alaska. This authorization is issued under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, and it is effective June 10, 2015, through June 9, 2016.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this authorization, which also includes NMFS’ response to the Marine Mammal Commission and other comments on NMFS’ proposed authorization.

The State of New Jersey has filed suit in federal court, trying to stop seismic exploration offshore of New Jersey. The defendants include the National Science Foundation; the National Marine Fisheries Service; NOAA’s Office of Coastal Managemen; and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

New Jersey’s complaint claims that this seismic authorization was issued in violation of the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the U.S. National Environmental Protection Act. Among other relief requested, The State asks the court to:

Enviros have sued again over Shell in the Arctic. This time, they filed a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Defendants are the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Shell has moved to intervene in the case.

The Enviros’ petition for review states in part:

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from the U.S. Navy for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Northwest Training and Testing study area from November 2015 through November 2020. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letters of Authorization to the Navy to incidentally harass marine mammals.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued to the U.S. Navy regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. These regulations govern the Navy’s unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore training activities conducted in Virginia and North Carolina, from June 2015 through June 2020. These regulations allow NMFS to issue a Letter of Authorization for the incidental take of marine mammals during the Navy’s specified activities and timeframes, set forth the permissible methods of taking, set forth other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, and set forth requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of the incidental take.