April 5, 2021 Ms. Jolie Harrison Dr. Michael J. Weise Division Chief Program Manager - Marine Mammals & Permits and Conservation Biology Program Office of Protected Resources Office of Naval Research - Code 32 1315 East-West Highway 875 N. Randolph St. 13th Floor Arlington, VA 22203-1995 Silver Spring, MD, 20910 [email protected] [email protected] Dear Ms. Harrison and Dr. Weise: On behalf of the Animal Welfare Institute, I write to you regarding the research study that will involve a deliberate take of minke whales in order to conduct auditory evoked potential (AEP) hearing tests.1 The capture of these minke whales off Lofoten, Norway is planned to commence in or around May 2021, last for approximately three weeks and then resume in 2022.2 We maintain the animal welfare and human safety risks associated with this study are unacceptable and urge its cancellation. AWI understands that the research study is being co-funded by the Office of Naval Research Marine Mammal Biology program and the interagency White House Subcommittee on Ocean Science & Technology (SOST) Ocean Sound and Marine Life (OSML) Task Team, with co- funding from USN’s 6.4 Living Marine Resources program, BOEM, NOAA and the MMC.3 The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the deficiencies that we feel exist with respect to Norway’s permitting of this project, our concerns for the safety of the involved whales and researchers, and the legal dilemma that this sort of research poses. To be clear, AWI does not oppose all research on animals; instead, we contemplate research involving animals on a case- by-case basis and advocate for the best possible treatment of animals involved in research. Here, 1 AWI has received documentation for this project from the Norwegian government following a request under Norway’s Public Access to Information regulation, section 6, and notes that it is awaiting further results from a Freedom of Information Act request; the following letter is representative of the information we currently have at our disposal. 2 AWI is aware that the project timeline had to be amended due to the COVID pandemic 3 Again, AWI is awaiting more specifics on the US government’s funding of this project. We also understand that additional funding may be coming from the oil and gas industry. Animal Welfare Institute April 5, 2021 Page 2 we have serious concerns regarding the welfare of the whales proposed for study, including any released after deemed unsuitable for the planned research. We are equally concerned for the safety of the humans involved in the research; we believe the researchers who will be in the water with the whales will be at risk of serious injury. Project Background AWI is aware that Dr. Petter Kvadsheim of the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (unit 053)) is leading the project in cooperation with Dr. Dorian Houser of the US-based National Marine Mammal Foundation. We understand the proposed project’s purpose is to better understand the kinds of sounds and frequencies that baleen whales can hear, including those pertaining to active sonar and seismic activities.4 AWI understands that the researchers are planning to set up a 1,300 meter long net across a strait at Vestvågøy in Lofoten. The plan is to use the net to maneuver juvenile minke whales, who will be migrating through this area on their way to foraging areas further north in the Barents Sea, into a 280 meter long, 150 meter wide and 27 meter deep enclosure between some islets in the fjord. When a whale moves into the netted-off area, the entrance will be closed and the whale trapped inside. The whale will be held in this area for 24 hours before the researchers try to measure its hearing, presumably by introducing different levels of sound to the animal and measuring the response.5 The researchers will conduct the AEP hearing testing using electrophysiological techniques and plan to optimize these techniques for measuring hearing in mysticetes. Before the experiments take place, a veterinarian from Dyreparken in Kristiansand will decide whether the animal is healthy enough to become a research subject. Before the hearing test, the whale will be moved to a modified salmon cage. The cage will be closed around the whale, which will be held between two rafts. There will be two people in the water with the whale and four on a raft. The whale’s state of health will be monitored by measuring heart rate and respiration. Researchers estimate it will take a maximum of six hours to complete the hearing testing for each whale, during which time it is claimed that the whales will likely experience “moderate distress and discomfort.” A safety protocol will be in place to minimize risk to the animal, including human end points, health monitoring in all phases, and if needed, use of sedation to reduce stress. Although the whales should not have to be stunned, stunning could take place if an emergency safety situation arises. Before the minke whales are released, they will be satellite-tagged. The tags will be used to track the whales following the research to see if they resume normal activities. 4 Email from Heidi Bugge to Peter Kvadsheim, Notification about central decision, 21 May 2019. Available upon request. 5 Proposed work plan. 2 Animal Welfare Institute April 5, 2021 Page 3 Mattilsynet has given approval to Dr. Kvadsheim to use 12 minke whales for this experiment.6 To our knowledge, the approval gives no information about any limits on the number of minke whales permitted to be chased during the attempt to corral a whale into the netted-off area, nor does it specify how many minkes maybe captured and released if they are determined not to be suitable candidates for the research. Existing Research Tells Us What We Need to Know Dolphins and other toothed whales (odontocetes), many species of which have been well-studied, use high and medium frequency sound for echolocation and communication. Baleen whales (mysticetes), however, do not have the same structures associated with echolocation. They tend to make lower frequency sounds and are able to communicate with each other across long distances. Although previous studies have indicated that baleen whales are affected by active sonar and seismic activity, more-specific data and levels of understanding are sought. AWI is aware of a number of published studies that already speak to acoustic responses in baleen whales,7 including acoustic response studies conducted on free-ranging minkes, one of them by Dr. Kvadsheim.8 This study noted: Minke whales are difficult to study and little information exists regarding their responses to anthropogenic sound. This study pools data from behavioural response studies off California and Norway. Data are derived from four tagged animals, of which one from each location was exposed to naval sonar signals. Statistical analyses were conducted using Mahalanobis distance to compare overall changes in parameters summarising dive behaviour, avoidance 6 See Module 1: National legislation – NORWAY, National and EU laws and guidance that regulate the scientific use of animals in Norway, https://org.uib.no/dyreavd/Documents/Module1NatinalLaws.pdf 7 Goldbogen, J.A., Southall, B.L., DeRuiter, S.L., Calambokidis, J., Friedlaender, A.S., Hazen, E.L., Falcone, E.A., Schorr, G.S., Douglas, A., Moretti, D.J., Kyburg, C., McKenna, M.F., and Tyack, P.L.(2013), Blue whales respond to simulated mid-frequency military sonar, Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280(1765): 20130657, https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/3837; Melcón, M. L., Cummins, A. J., Kerosky, S. M., Roche, L. K., Wiggins, S. M., & Hildebrand, J. A. (2012), Blue whales respond to anthropogenic noise. PLoS ONE 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032681; Forney, K.A., B.L. Southall, E. Slooten, S. Dawson, A.J. Read, R.W. Baird, and R.L. Brownell Jr. (2017), Nowhere to go: noise impact assessments for marine mammal populations with high site fidelity, Endangered Species Research 32: 391–413; NOAA, “Cetacean and Sound Mapping,” available at: www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/cetsound; Gomez, C., Lawson, J.W., Wright, A.J., Buren, A.D., Tollit, D., and Lesage, V. (2016), A systematic review on the behavioural response of wild marine mammals to noise: The disparity between science and policy, Canadian Journal of Zoology 94: 801–19. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2016-0098. 8 Kvadsheim, P. H., DeRuiter, S., Sivle, L. D., Goldbogen, J., Roland-Hansen, R., Miller, P., Lam, F. A., Calambokidis, J., Friedlaender, A., Visser, F., Tyack, P. L., Kleivane, L., & Southall, B. (2017), Avoidance responses of minke whales to 1-4kHz naval sonar, Marine Pollution Bulletin 121(1-2): 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.05.037. See also Kvadsheim, P., Forland, N., de Jong, K., Nyqvist, D., Grimsbø, E and Sivle, L. (2020). Effekter av støyforurensning på havmiljø – kunnskapsstatus og forvaltningsrådgiving. Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt (FFI), Havforskningsinstituttet and Miljødirektoratet, FFI- RAPPORT 20/01015. In this latter paper, it is noted that “knowledge of how the behavior of marine mammals is affected by noise pollution has increased enormously in the last 20 years…due both to increased focus on the issue, but also to a positive development in relation to methodology for studying this.” 3 Animal Welfare Institute April 5, 2021 Page 4 behaviour, and potential energetic costs of disturbance. Our quantitative analysis showed that both animals initiated avoidance behaviour, but responses were not associated with unusual dive behaviour. In one exposed animal the avoidance of the sonar source included a 5-fold increase in horizontal speed away from the source, implying a significant increase in metabolic rate.