A landmark publication in the research on western grey whales and seismic survey noise
/Seven years in the making, a Topical Collection on Western Gray Whales and Industry Seismic Operations of 10 peer-reviewed original articles plus an introductory note by guest editor Bill Streever was published electronically on 18 October in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. This is the most comprehensive collected literature to arise from decades of studies of the effects of offshore oil and gas development, and in particular the noise disturbance from such activities, on the population of grey whales that gather every summer on the feeding grounds off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia. The issue is dedicated to the late Rodger Melton, a scientist who was instrumental in establishing a long-term western gray whale research program on Sakhalin as well as monitoring and mitigation measures to minimize impacts from operations in the area.
Scientists from JASCO Applied Sciences were involved since 2004 in the underwater acoustics field work and analyses that fed into these papers and several others before them, in addition to contributing to the real-time mitigation effort which season after season ensured that whales would not be exposed to excessive sound emissions from offshore activities and especially the airgun sources used for hydrocarbon reservoir location and management. The recently published collected papers relate specifically to the acoustic, behavioural, distribution and benthic observations gathered in an unprecedented monitoring effort supported by the oil company Exxon Neftegas during the 2015 season, when that organization and Sakhalin Energy ran back-to-back seismic surveys in the ocean region directly facing the nearshore feeding grounds.
The individual papers, all open access, are retrievable from the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment website. Listed below are five of the articles in the collection that most directly relate to the underwater acoustics studies performed and their role in the assessment of effects on the whale population, as well as the mitigation of potential disturbance. Two scientists from JASCO involved in the 2015 Exxon Neftegas field studies and later analyses—Mikhail Zykov and Roberto Racca—are among the co-authors of these papers, but numerous others have participated over the years in the research effort that culminated in the milestone publication of the Topical Collection.
Seismic surveys near gray whale feeding areas off Sakhalin Island, Russia: assessing impact and mitigation effectiveness
Lisanne Aerts · Michael R. Jenkerson · Vladimir E. Nechayuk · Glenn Gailey · Roberto Racca · Arny L. Blanchard · Lisa K. Schwarz · H. Rodger Melton
Real-time acoustic monitoring with telemetry to mitigate potential effects of seismic survey sounds on marine mammals: a case study offshore Sakhalin Island
Alexander N. Rutenko · Mikhail M. Zykov · Vladimir A. Gritsenko · Mikhail Yu. Fershalov · Michael R. Jenkerson · Roberto Racca · Vladimir E. Nechayuk
Acoustic monitoring and analyses of air gun, pile driving, vessel, and ambient sounds during the 2015 seismic surveys on the Sakhalin shelf
Alexander N. Rutenko · Mikhail M. Zykov · Vladimir A. Gritsenko · Mikhail Yu. Fershalov · Michael R. Jenkerson · Denis S. Manulchev · Roberto Racca · Vladimir E. Nechayuk
Western gray whale behavioral response to seismic surveys during their foraging season
Glenn Gailey · Olga Sychenko · Mikhail Zykov · Alexander Rutenko · Arny Blanchard · Rodger H. Melton
Gray whale density during seismic surveys near their Sakhalin feeding ground
Glenn Gailey · Mikhail Zykov · Olga Sychenko · Alexander Rutenko · Arny L. Blanchard · Lisanne Aerts · Rodger H. Melton
