This was published 10 months ago
Seismic search for gas risks marine life, say opponents
By Miki Perkins
A proposal to use underwater sound blasts to search for oil and gas across a huge area between Victoria and Tasmania has run into opposition from environmentalists and First Nations people.
The plan, a joint venture between data company TGS and offshore drilling company SLB-Schlumberger, would be one of the world’s largest 3D seismic testing surveys, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said.
Lisa Deppeler and Mitch Pope from Otways Climate Emergency Action Network at Barwon Heads near Geelong.Credit: Jason South
It would cover an area of more than 45,000 square kilometres off the coast between Ocean Grove and Portland.
Seismic testing is the use of high-powered underwater air guns towed behind a ship that release sound blasts at regular intervals to record echoes of geological formations below the seabed.
The area in the TGS application includes two Commonwealth marine parks and an area federally recognised as “biologically important” for the feeding and migration of pygmy blue and southern right whales, its opponents argue.
“We are worried about damage to marine life, from the smallest critters in the ocean right through to southern right whales, and the possible effects on whale migrations,” said Lisa Deppeler from the community-based Otways Climate Emergency Action Network.
“The ocean is already suffering from the impacts of climate change, and any gas they find would not be harvested for decades anyway. We need to move beyond gas.”
The International Energy Agency has said that no new oil and gas reserves should be created if the world is to avoid dangerous global heating. This year will probably be the hottest in the past 100,000 years, with climate scientists warning that earth has entered uncharted territory.
Seismic testing has been in the national spotlight after last month, the Federal Court issued an injunction preventing Woodside Energy from conducting seismic testing for its $16.5 billion Scarborough gas project amid claims it failed to consult traditional custodians.
Australian Energy Producers, the peak body for oil and gas producers, said seismic surveying was a well-known exploration method used in Australia for 60 years and was subject to strict regulations.
“Marine animals can and do react to sound, but research and more than 60 years of industry activity has shown that there is no evidence of any significant impact to the survivability of marine species,” chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.
In Victoria, there have been more than 30,000 submissions from the public in response to TGS’s environmental plan submitted to the federal regulator, NOPSEMA. At least 20,000 of these were from concerned supporters of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the group’s oil and gas campaign manager Louise Morris.
“All the science that has been done shows seismic blasting is lethal for the tiny animals floating in the sea that form the foundation of the food chain – it literally pulverises them,” Morris said.
Most research on the impacts of seismic testing had been focused on cetaceans such as whales and dolphins, said University of Tasmania senior research fellow Dr Ryan Day. It can have a temporary or permanent effect on mammalian hearing, he said.
Day and colleagues have investigated the impact on scallops and rock lobster – both important to the fishing industry – and zooplankton.
Scallops showed signs of severe stress after testing while lobsters showed a less severe physiological impact, but the organ they used for sensing gravity was damaged following exposure.
Zooplankton – the microscopic animals that drift through the ocean – showed an increase in dead animals and less plankton, either because they were killed or had left the area around the air gun, Day said.
There are two other projects in the area: CGG has proposed conducting seismic testing off the coast of Victoria between Warrnambool and Apollo Bay, while US oil and gas company Conoco Phillips has test drilling proposals for gas in two locations.
Port Fairy resident and Gunditjmara woman Yaraan Couzens-Bundle said she was a custodian of the Gunditjmara whale dreaming, including song lines for the migratory path of the southern right whale and blue whale feeding grounds.
“The Southern Ocean has sustained my people for thousands of years, and now international gas companies have their eyes on our sea Country,” Couzens-Bundle said. “We are astounded at the size of the projects.”
A spokesperson for TGS said before conducting any seismic activity, it would obtain all necessary permits, including environmental assessments.
A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips Australia said it was trying to identify commercially viable natural gas reserves to for the Australian east coast domestic market. CGG did not response to a request for comment.
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