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Posted April 06, 2005
Seismic Testing to Sneak Into BC's Pacific Waters?
April 15 DEADLINE: Please write-in to the federal public commentary
process about proposed new marine seismic testing regulations that
include BC's coast!
The federal Liberal government has recently released proposed
regulations on seismic testing for coastal oil and gas development in
Canadian waters, the very weak and dangerous "Statement of Canadian
Practice on Seismic Noise in the Marine Environment". The proposed
regulations in this document ignore current science, violate the
precautionary approach of our Oceans Act, will put the health of marine
life at serious risk, and will act as a "foot in the door" strategy for
the BC government to eventually get seismic testing underway off our
beautiful wild Pacific coast. The public only has until April 15 to
comment on their proposal. Please take 5 minutes and write-in your
comments - it's KEY that YOU do this right now.
Seismic testing, in which shock waves are blasted by underwater air guns
through vast areas of the ocean in order to locate potential oil
deposits below the ocean floor, is one of the most environmentally
damaging activities for marine life. It has been implicated in fatal
whale strandings, large-scale fish kills, driving whales and fish away
from their feeding areas and migration routes, and seriously harming
crabs, squid and other marine life.
The draft standards for seismic testing are national in scope, and the
BC Liberal government slyfully signed onto the proposed standards with
the federal government. If it goes through, it'll set up a regulatory
framework that could then pave the way for the federal government (under
pressure by the BC Liberal government) to issue seismic testing permits
for the BC coast.
Allowing seismic testing is a "foot in the door" strategy to eventually
get the moratorium lifted. After companies spend hundreds of millions of
dollars to do seismic testing to locate potential oil deposits, it would
be very difficult at that point for the government to deny them the
right to drill "mere" exploratory wells to confirm the presence of these
deposits. The moratorium would have to be lifted to do so. Afterwards,
full-on commercial drilling would follow.
Click here to read the Statement of Canadian Practice on Seismic Noise.
For more info on seismic testing and other key marine issues in BC,
check out the Living Ocean Society's excellent online library.
Some problems with the proposed "Statement of Canadian Practice on
Seismic Noise in the Marine Environment" include:
- The regulations shouldn't include BC's Pacific Coast, where there is a
moratorium currently in place to prevent oil and gas development. Why
consider allowing oil exploration off the BC coast when oil drilling is
not allowed? The only reason is to use seismic testing as a "wedge in
the door" to eventually get the moratorium lifted.
- The proposed mitigation measures are extremely weak and lacks the
scientific evidence to back up the assumptions upon which these measures
are based. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that the
biological and ecological effects of seismic testing on fish,
invertebrates, or marine mammals are expected to be low. Such
assumptions, as stated in the draft document, are entirely inaccurate
and are not supported by international science, nor the science
articulated by Fisheries and Oceans' own research.
- For example, a recent study carried out by the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans last fall found that female snow crabs showed short-term and
long-term damage such as hemorrhaging and detached reproductive organs
after a 12-day seismic experiment off Cape Breton on Canada's east
coast. This summer, international science was presented to the
International Whaling Commission (IWC) illustrating the overwhelming
evidence that noise from offshore oil and gas seismic testing and
military sonar tests are causing serious short-term and long-term damage
to whales.
- The Oceans Act states very clearly that planning in the ocean needs to
take a precautionary approach, a commitment to err on the side of
caution. Yet these proposed measures do the exact opposite. Allowing
seismic testing in areas of biological significance, spawning, and whale
feeding and breeding regions would be ignoring international scientific
evidence that suggests the need for precaution.
- Within these draft guidelines there is a blatant acceptance that it is
appropriate for marine mammals and fish to be killed by the practice of
seismic testing, as long as they are not an 'endangered mammal' or
impacts do not occur at the population level. The BC coastal waters
under consideration for offshore oil and gas support many marine mammal
species including seven 'threatened' species, and three species of
special concern. The critical habitat requirements of the 29 marine
mammal species in these waters have not been adequately assessed and
very little baseline data has been collected on most of these species.
- The process to develop the Statement of Canadian Practice document
involved input from industry and the provincial Ministries of Energy and
Mines, but it lacked input from Environment Canada and any of the
provincial ministries responsible for protecting the environment. The
process has shown a lack of transparency, with very little involvement
from the conservation community and independent scientists. As a result,
the outcome has ignored national and international science that
identifies many potential impacts from seismic testing, calls for
further research, and the need for precaution.
IT'LL ONLY TAKE 5 MINUTES!
Write a brief letter to the public commentary process by April 15 - your
letter is crucial to keep our Pacific coast free from the destruction of
seismic shock waves.
Let the federal Liberal government know whether or not you:
- Think they should completely discard or scrap their proposed
"Statement of Canadian Practice on Seismic Noise in the Marine
Environment"
- Believe the proposed seismic regulations will be used as a precursor
for the federal government, under pressure from the BC Liberal
government, to issue seismic testing permits for BC's Pacific waters.
BC's waters shouldn't even be considered for seismic testing as there is
a moratorium on oil and gas development there. Why explore for oil if it
can't be extracted?
- Believe that the document lacks scientific credibility, adequate peer
review, and fails to consider key scientific literature on the impacts
of seismic testing. It also downplays the significance of the ecological
impacts of seismic testing.
- Believe the standards are dangerously weak and ineffective.
Send your letter to:
To: Prime Minister Paul Martin
pm@pm.gc.ca
CC: Honourable Geoff Regan, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Mr. Daniel McDougall, Director General, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
mcdougalld@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Mr. Roger Wysocki, Oceans Policy Strategist, Fisheries and Oceans
Canada
wysockir@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of the Environment
Stephane.Dion@ec.gc.ca
As importantly, write to your local federal Member of Parliament (MP)
who you can find at: http://www.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
Please commit to getting one friend or family member to write a letter,
too!
Thanks for helping keep BC's Wild Coast safe!
- Pearl Gottschalk and Ken Wu, Western Canada Wilderness Committee
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