Managing Marine Mammal Issues: Corporate Policy, Stakeholder Engagement, Applied Research, and Training

摘要

Offshore development requires management of potential impacts of industry sounds on marine mammals. From a business perspective, industry representatives should realize that stakeholders and the regulatory community often assume, a priori, that industry sounds will impact whales, seals, and other marine mammals. The onus is on industry to demonstrate that potential impacts—including behavioral impacts—can be mitigated to an acceptable level. Furthermore, acceptable levels of mitigation must be demonstrated against a backdrop of confusion caused in part by a poor understanding of industry sounds and underwater sound propagation, incomplete knowledge of marine mammal hearing ability, and limited data on the ability of sound to injure or change the behavior of marine mammals. This paper describes BP’s strategy for managing this issue. The key elements of this strategy include: 1. A flexible corporate approach through adherence to environmental performance requirements, which guide operations globally but allow the flexibility needed to consider regionally or locally important issues, such as differences in species, sound sources, business requirements, and other factors. 2. Constructive engagement with stakeholders who might influence business outcomes. 3. Support of applied research that might yield results with either regional or global business ramifications. 4. Establishment of a training program to better prepare the BP work force involved with marine mammal issues. While this approach may not be well suited for every oil and gas company, it is clear that all companies need to articulate, at least internally, a strategy that recognizes the issue of marine mammals and underwater sound in a business context. Ignoring the issue, or hoping that it will not impact operations, is to run an unacceptable risk of delayed or inefficient projects and expensive lost opportunities.