WESTERN GRAY WHALE ADVISORY PANEL WGWAP-12 12th Meeting November 2012 Busan, Republic of Korea REPORT OF THE WESTERN GRAY WHALE ADVISORY PANEL AT ITS TWELFTH MEETING CONVENED BY THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE WGWAP-12 Report of the twelfth meeting of the WGWAP CONTENTS Contents 1 OPENING ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ................................................................................................................. 6 1.2 ADOPTION OF AGENDA ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 DOCUMENTS ...................................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 REPORTING PROCEDURES AND TIMELINES.......................................................................................... 7 2 UPDATES ............................................................................................................................................ 7 2.1 STATUS OF RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2 GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS, ESPECIALLY TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS, THAT ARE INITIALLY REJECTED BY THE COMPANY ............................................................................. 8 2.3 WEBSITE ........................................................................................................................................... 9 2.4 IUCN PERSONNEL, RULES OF PROCEDURE AND RECOMMENDATIONS ADDRESSED TO IUCN ............. 9 2.5 OVERVIEW OF SAKHALIN ENERGY ACTIVITIES SINCE WGWAP-11 ................................................. 10 2.6 IWC, IWG, WCC WORKSHOP, SUZDAL ROUNDTABLE ..................................................................... 10 2.6.1 International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific Committee ....................................... 10 2.6.2 Interdepartmental Working Group (IWG) of Ministry of Natural Resources .................... 11 2.6.3 IUCN World Conservation Congress, Jeju ........................................................................ 11 2.6.4 Suzdal ................................................................................................................................. 11 2.6.5 Other .................................................................................................................................. 12 3 REPORTS ON FIELD ACTIVITIES IN 2011 (NOT INCLUDING SOUTH PILTUN SITE SURVEY WORK) ........................................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 PHOTO-IDENTIFICATION ................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 DISTRIBUTION .................................................................................................................................. 13 3.3 BENTHIC .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.4 ACOUSTICS ...................................................................................................................................... 17 3.5 FUTURE OF JOINT PROGRAMME .................................................................................................... 17 4 SATELLITE TAGGING ................................................................................................................. 18 4.1 ‘VARVARA’ RESULTS ....................................................................................................................... 18 4.2 CONSIDERATION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF TAGGED WHALES ............................................................. 19 4.3 FUTURE PLANS ................................................................................................................................ 19 5 BASIN-WIDE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL MOVEMENTS .......................................................... 20 5.1 PHOTOGRAPHS, GENETICS, SATELLITE TRACKING ............................................................................ 20 5.2 RANGE-WIDE INITIATIVE .................................................................................................................. 21 6 OIL SPILL RESPONSE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING ....................................... 21 6.1 REPORTS ON SITE VISITS................................................................................................................... 21 6.1.1 Nogliki Exercise ................................................................................................................. 22 6.1.2 Piltun Exercise ................................................................................................................... 22 6.1.3 OSR Equipment Stockpiles ................................................................................................. 23 6.1.4 OSRPs ................................................................................................................................ 23 6.1.5 Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 23 6.2 UPDATE ON OUTSTANDING OIL SPILL-RELATED RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................. 24 6.3 FUTURE WORK OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING TASK FORCE ..................................................... 25 6.4 HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS .............................................................................................................. 25 6.5 STRANDING DETECTION AND RESPONSE ....................................................................................... 26 7 NOISE ISSUES ................................................................................................................................. 27 7.1 REVIEW OF PAST RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................. 28 Page 2 WGWAP-12 Report of the twelfth meeting of the WGWAP 7.1.1 WGWAP-11/003: review identified periods of loud noise.................................................. 28 7.1.2 WGWAP-11/007: improved process for initial analysis of acoustic data .......................... 29 7.1.3 WGWAP-11/006: activities document ................................................................................ 30 7.1.4 Panel discussion and conclusions ...................................................................................... 30 7.2 2012 2-D SEISMIC (GEOTECHNICAL) SURVEY ................................................................................... 30 7.2.1 Conduct of the survey ......................................................................................................... 30 7.2.2 Panel discussion and conclusion........................................................................................ 32 7.3 PROGRESS WITH ANALYSES OF DATA COLLECTED DURING THE 4-D SURVEY ................................... 32 7.3.1 Noise cases ......................................................................................................................... 33 7.3.2 Behaviour MVA .................................................................................................................. 33 7.3.3 Distribution MVAs ............................................................................................................. 34 7.3.4 Publication ......................................................................................................................... 34 7.3.5 Panel discussion and recommendations............................................................................. 34 7.4 FUTURE 3-D/4-D SURVEYS .............................................................................................................. 35 7.4.1 Panel discussion and conclusions ...................................................................................... 35 7.5 FUTURE WORK OF THE NTF ............................................................................................................. 35 7.6 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 36 8 UPDATE ON SOUTH PILTUN PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING ............................... 36 9 ACTIVITIES BY SAKHALIN ENERGY AND OTHER COMPANIES ON SAKHALIN SHELF IN 2012, 2013 AND BEYOND ........................................................................................................................ 38 9.1 2012 ............... ................................................................................................................................. 38 9.2 2013 AND BEYOND ........................................................................................................................... 38 10 CUMULATIVE IMPACTS ............................................................................................................. 39 10.1 PROGRESS ON ‘INTEGRATED ANALYSIS’ .......................................................................................... 39 10.2 POPULATION CONSEQUENCES OF DISTURBANCE AND RELATED ISSUES ........................................... 40 11 UPDATE ON POPULATION ASSESSMENT .............................................................................. 41 12 WGWAP WORKPLAN