*LDEO seismic surveys in SE Asia (FR 78294): review details and new
comment deadline*
In a recent letter, Dr John Wang described concerns over a series of
marine seismic surveys using a large airgun array from the /Langseth,/
planned for the waters of SE Asia (including the EEZs of Japan, Taiwan,
China and the Philippines) from March 21 to July 14 2009 by the
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) at Columbia University, as part
of the TAIGER project. These surveys are believed to have the potential
to impact, in some cases quite significantly, on a considerable number
of vulnerable, poorly understood or in some cases critically endangered
populations of cetaceans in the highly biodiverse yet relatively poorly
studied waters of this region.
Please note that previous L-DEO seismic surveys have not attracted
sufficient scientific critique of unverified assertions in their
authorization requests, and future L-DEO seismic surveys are planned for
other regions. This current authorization request therefore represents
an opportunity to improve the science and mitigations for future
worldwide seismic surveys, as well as for this SE Asia project.
Many local and international scientists and other interest groups
learned only in early January that LDEO had proposed the survey and had
applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the US for an
Incidental Harassment Authorisation (IHA) to 'take' small numbers of
cetaceans during these SE Asia surveys. After a number of individuals
and groups expressed concern, an extension on the comment period was
granted, with the new deadline being *_1700 EST on 5^th February 2009_*.
A review of the Environmental Assessment for the project is provided
below. The author of this review does not share the conclusion by LDEO
that the impacts of these seismic surveys on local marine mammals will
be minimal, and highlights the potential impacts on several marine
mammal species including the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (/Sousa
chinensis/), beaked whales (Ziphiidae), sperm whale, (/Physeter
macrocephalus/), finless porpoise (/Neophocaena spp./), western gray
whale (/Eschrichtius robustus/), North Pacific right whale, (/Eubalaena
japonica/), Western North Pacific blue whale, (/Balaenoptera musculus/),
Western North Pacific Humpback Whale, (/Megaptera novaeangliae/) and
others. The author also describes problematic aspects such as the timing
the proposed surveys and proposed mitigation measures.
For any of you who have an interest in one or more of the potentially
affected species, populations or regions, you are invited to read this
review and address any questions or concerns to NMFS by the above deadline.
Contact:
Michael Payne, Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education Division,
Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315
East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD, 20910--3225. The mailbox address
for providing email comments is _pr1.0648--_x...@noaa.gov
<mailto:x...@noaa.gov> or michael.pa...@noaa.gov
<mailto:michael.pa...@noaa.gov>.
To receive updates on further developments related to this alert, please
contact Christina MacFarquhar at Wild at Heart Legal Defense
Association, Taiwan, chrisgag...@gmail.com.
The Federal Register notice and additional documents related to this
activity can be found at the following NMFS web-pages:
Federal Register notice: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/fr/fr73-78294.pdf
Application: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/taiger_iha.pdf
EA: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/taiger_ea.pdf
The direct link to the detailed, scientific review of the authorization
proposal is:
http://en.wildatheart.org.tw/archives/SEAsiaLDEOreview_28.1.09.pdf
This review is too long to be included in the text of this email message.
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