The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service published notice that NMFS has NMFS received a request from the U.S. Navy for authorization to take marine mammals

incidental to training and testing activities conducted in the Northwest Training and Testing Study Area for a period of seven years, from November, 2020 through November, 2027.  The NWTT Study Area is composed of established maritime operating and warning areas in the eastern North Pacific Ocean region, including areas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and Western Behm Canal in southeastern Alaska.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness prepared and sent to NOAA/NMFS a Supplement to CRE’s previously filed Information Quality Act (“IQA”) Alert on NOAA/NMFS’ proposed Gulf of Mexico Take Rules for oil and gas exploration.  CRE’s Supplement is entitled

“PROPOSED GULF OF MEXICO TAKE RULES FOR OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION DO NOT COMPLY WITH OMB’s IQA IMPLEMENTATION MEMORANDUM.”

CRE’s Alert Supplement included the following summary (footnotes omitted):

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, upon request from Hilcorp Alaska LLC has issued hereby regulations governing the unintentional taking of marine mammals incidental to oil and gas activities in Cook Inlet, Alaska, over the course of five years (2019-2024). These regulations, which allow for the issuance of Letters of Authorization for the incidental take of marine mammals during the described activities and specified timeframes, prescribe the permissible methods of taking and other means of effecting the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammal species or stocks and their habitat, as well as requirements pertaining to the monitoring and reporting of such taking.

Editor’s note: The U.S. National Marine fisheries Service published the above-titled article on its Science Blog.  This article reads in part as follows:

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to incidentally harass, by Level A and Level B harassment, marine mammals during seismic activities associated with a marine geophysical survey in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. This Authorization is effective from July 10, 2019 through July 9, 2020.

The Marine Mammal Commission filed comment on the proposed IHA that criticized the take models used in L-DEO’s IHA application. NMFS reject MMC’s criticisms for the following and other reasons:

The federal court judge in the South Carolina Atlantic IHA litigation set a summary judgment briefing schedule, which could have decided the case on the merits. The Federal Defendants, which include the National Marine Fisheries Service, provided voluminous additions to the record before the court in the case, and indicated that they would provide additional documents that the Government does not consider to be part of the administrative record sometime within three weeks of July 2, 2019.The Environmental Plaintiffs then filed motions asking the court to suspend all deadlines in the briefing schedule and order the Federal Defendants to provide information about their supplementing the record.

Editor’s Note: The International association of Geophysical Contractors posted the above-titled article on IAGC’s website. The article reads as follows:

“Seismic Imaging Centre- a dedicated high computing centre with more than 1,000 speed computing cores for carrying out research, training and all the complex modelling work, related to earth science science was inaugurated in the department of Geophysics, Institute of Science of Banaras Hindu University.

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The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has reopened the public comment period on NMFS’ proposed rule under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to authorize the taking of marine mammals, by mortality, serious injury, Level A harassment, and Level B harassment, incidental to the construction and operation of the Liberty Drilling and Production Island, Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

The comment period for the proposed rule that published on May 29, 2019 closed on June 28, 2019. NMFS is reopening the public comment period until July 31, 2019, to provide the public with additional time to submit information and to comment on this proposed rule.

Editor’s Note: The International Association of Geophysical Contractors posted the above- titled article on one of IAGC’s websites.  The article reads as follows:

“Zion Market Research published a new 110+ pages industry research “Seismic Survey Market by Service (Data Acquisition, Data Processing and Interpretation), Technology (2D Imaging, 3D Imaging and 4D Imaging) and Region: Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2016 – 2022” in its database. The Seismic Survey Market report intends to offer a resourceful means to assess the Seismic Survey Market and entails the all-inclusive analysis and upfront statistics with regards to the market.

Read more- https://zmrnewsblog.com/9483/global-seismic-survey-market-to-reach-a-valuation-of-us-9-23-billion-by-2022/”

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to Alaska LNG Project in Cook Inlet, over the course of five years (2020–2025). Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS is proposing regulations to govern that take, and requests comments on the proposed regulations. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorization, and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of NMFS’ decision.

NMFS must receive comments and information no later than July 29, 2019.