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Underwater Sound and Vibration from Offshore Petroleum Activities and Their Potential Effects on Marine Fauna: an Australian Perspective

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Underwater Sound and Vibration from Offshore Petroleum Activities and Their Potential Effects on Marine Fauna: an Australian Perspective Underwater Sound and Vibration from Offshore Petroleum Activities and their Potential Effects on Marine Fauna: An Australian Perspective By Chandra Salgado Kent, Robert D. McCauley, Alec Duncan, Christine Erbe, Alexander Gavrilov, Klaus Lucke, and Iain Parnum Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST), Curtin University, GPO Box U 1987 Perth 6845, WA April 2016 For – APPEA PROJECT CMST 1218 REPORT 2015-13 1 Disclaimer: The authors have endeavoured to make the information in this report as accurate and comprehensive as possible. However the review depended upon the works made available to us and/or available on-line or published at the time. 2 Contents 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Purpose of this report 11 1.2 Basis for synthesis and review 12 1.3 Approach 12 1.4 Report structure 16 2 Sound and vibration in the marine environment 17 2.1 Definition and measurement of sound and vibration 17 2.2 Sources of sound and vibration 20 2.3 Marine faunal sensory systems 21 3 Potential impacts of sound and vibration 27 4 Regulating the oil and gas industry 34 5 Underwater sound and vibration from petroleum activities 35 5.1 Australian oil and gas reserves 35 5.2 Exploration for oil and gas reserves 40 5.2.1 Seismic surveys using airguns 40 Seismic reflection 42 Vertical seismic profiling 50 Modified airguns and marine vibrators 50 Geophysical survey sources 50 Acoustic communication and positioning systems 51 5.2.2 Exploration drilling 54 5.3 Development and production 54 5.3.1 Drilling 54 Sound produced during drilling 55 5.3.2 Installation of production platforms and infrastructure 58 5.3.3 Pile driving 60 5.3.4 Vessels 63 5.3.5 Dredging 66 5.3.6 Machinery and flow noise 67 5.3.7 Helicopters 68 3 5.4 Decommissioning 69 5.4.1 Sound and vibration from decommissioning 70 5.5 Summary of sound and vibration produced by oil and gas activities 71 6 Effects of sound on Australian marine fauna 73 6.1 Marine mammals 74 6.1.1 Mysticetes 75 Hearing sensitivity 75 Experimental studies measuring impacts 77 International research relevant to Australia 83 Other research currently underway in Australia but not completed 84 6.1.2 Odontocetes 85 Hearing sensitivity 85 Experimental studies measuring impacts 89 International research relevant to Australia 97 Other relevant research currently underway in Australia but not completed 97 6.1.3 Pinnipeds 98 Hearing sensitivity 98 Experimental studies measuring impacts 99 International research relevant to Australia 100 Other relevant research currently underway in Australia but not completed 100 6.1.4 Dugongs 100 Hearing sensitivity 100 Experimental studies measuring impacts 101 International research relevant to Australia 103 Other relevant research currently underway in Australia but not completed 103 6.1.5 Synthesis of known effects and gaps in knowledge 103 6.2 Penguins 103 Hearing sensitivity 104 Experimental studies measuring impacts 105 International research relevant to Australia 105 Other research currently underway in Australia but not completed 105 6.2.1 Synthesis of known effects and gaps in knowledge 106 4 6.3 Marine reptiles 106 Hearing sensitivity 106 Experimental studies measuring impacts 107 International research relevant to Australia 110 Other research currently underway in Australia but not completed 111 6.3.1 Synthesis of known effects and gaps in knowledge 111 6.4 Fish 111 6.4.1 Hearing sensitivity 112 6.4.2 Experimental studies measuring impacts 113 Scott Reef fin-fish study 113 Fin-fish behavioural response to sound 116 Changes in fin-fish catch rates due to seismic surveys 117 Masking of fin-fish hearing system 119 Threshold Shift and Auditory Damage in fin-fish 119 Physiological response in fin-fish 120 6.4.3 Synthesis of known effects and gaps in knowledge 121 Synthesis of known effects 121 Knowledge gaps 122 6.5 Invertebrates 127 6.5.1 Hearing sensitivity 127 6.5.2 Experimental studies measuring impacts 129 Squid 129 Scallops 130 Crustaceans 130 Coral 132 Larvae/plankton 132 6.5.3 Synthesis of known effects and gaps in knowledge 133 Synthesis of known effects 133 Knowledge gaps 135 7 Effects of vibration on Australian marine fauna 141 7.1 Sensitivity to vibration 141 7.2 Experimental studies measuring impacts 141 5 8 Conclusions 142 References 148 APPENDIX A: Terms and Definitions 174 APPENDIX B: Frequency ranges and source levels for mysticetes sounds in or near Australian waters 176 APPENDIX C: Marine Mammal Conservation Status 178 APPENDIX D: Penguin Conservation Status 181 APPENDIX E: Reptile Conservation Status 182 6 Table of Figures Figure 1. Knowledge required to assess the impact of sound or vibration on an organism .......... 11 Figure 2. Approach used to select works for inclusion in this synthesis ................................................ 15 Figure 3. Lay-out and topics in this review ......................................................................................................... 16 Figure 4. Vibration of a single particle shown as a mechanical oscillation from a neutral to a positive position, back to the neutral position, through to a negative position, and finally back to a neutral position ............................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 5. A sound wave produced by the oscillation of particles, with a single oscillating (vibrating) particle shown in orange .............................................................................................................. 18 Figure 6. Examples of sources of pulsed and continuous noise from human activities ................... 20 Figure 7. Examples of physical, biological and man-made sources of sound and vibration in the ocean ............................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Figure 8. Examples of marine fauna sensory structures for detecting sound and vibration ......... 25 Figure 9. Human audiogram (dB relative to absolute reference level) ................................................... 26 Figure 10. Theoretical zones of impact around a noise source, with stress potentially occurring across all levels of impact .................................................................................................................................... 32 Figure 11 Possible noise exposure impact pathways in marine fauna ................................................... 33 Figure 12. Individual, subpopulation, population, and species levels to be considered in assessing impact severity .................................................................................................................................... 34 Figure 13. Production (millions of barrels) of Australian crude oil, condensate and naturally- occurring LPG resources ...................................................................................................................................... 36 Figure 14. Australian liquid hydrocarbon resources, infrastructure, past production and remaining reserves ................................................................................................................................................. 37 Figure 15. Australia’s natural gas (in mmcf) production .............................................................................. 38 Figure 16. Activities involved in the overall process of oil and gas extraction .................................... 39 Figure 17. Seismic surveys conducted since (A) the 1960’s to 2014 and (B) from 2004–2010 (red) and from 2010–2014 (green) ................................................................................................................. 41 Figure 18. Example seismic survey configuration showing airguns and receivers trailing behind the vessel and the associated wave pattern of reflections off the seabed ....................................... 43 Figure 19. Typical signal from an airgun in the absence of surface reflections................................... 43 Figure 20. Australian 2D and 3D seismic surveys conducted between 1984 and 2010 .................. 45 Figure 21. Simulated output of the airgun array shown in Error! Reference source not found. as a function of direction and frequency for a depression angle 15° below the horizontal, including the effects of the sea surface reflection ...................................................................................... 46 Figure 22. Source sound exposure level as a function of azimuth for a depression angle 15° below the horizontal and including the effects of sea surface reflection ......................................... 47 7 Figure 23. Vertical cross-section through the modelled sound field from a seismic source over a continental slope ..................................................................................................................................................... 48 Figure 24. Mean received noise levels from 49 seismic survey sources measured by CMST as a function of range (mean value in logarithmic range bins with 95% confidence limits added) ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 25. Offshore drilling platforms and vessels .......................................................................................... 54 Figure 26. Sound pressure waveform of underwater noise recorded
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