WESTERN GRAY WHALE ADVISORY PANEL WGWAP-11 11th Meeting 12-14 February 2012 Geneva, Switzerland REPORT OF THE WESTERN GRAY WHALE ADVISORY PANEL AT ITS ELEVENTH MEETING CONVENED BY THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE WGWAP-11 Report of the eleventh meeting of the WGWAP CONTENTS 1 OPENING ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 ADOPTION OF AGENDA ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 DOCUMENTS ...................................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 REPORTING PROCEDURES AND TIMELINES ......................................................................................... 6 1.5 UPDATE ON OUTSTANDING BUSINESS FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS INCLUDING STATUS OF RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 WEBSITE UPDATE ............................................................................................................................... 6 1.7 IUCN UPDATE ON PERSONNEL, CONTRACT, TOR ETC. ...................................................................... 6 2 TWO-YEAR EVALUATION ............................................................................................................ 7 3 REPORTS ON FIELD ACTIVITIES IN 2011 ................................................................................ 8 3.1 PHOTO-IDENTIFICATION ..................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 DISTRIBUTION .................................................................................................................................... 9 3.3 ACOUSTICS ........................................................................................................................................ 9 3.4 BENTHIC .......................................................................................................................................... 10 3.5 FIELD PROGRAMME OF RUSSIA-US TEAM IN 2011 ........................................................................... 11 3.6 2012 JOINT PROGRAMME ................................................................................................................. 12 4 SATELLITE TAGGING ................................................................................................................. 12 4.1 SUMMARY OF FIELD EFFORT IN 2011 ............................................................................................... 12 5 NOISE TASK FORCE ..................................................................................................................... 13 5.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................. 13 5.2 REPORT OF NOVEMBER 2011 MEETING (NTF-1) .............................................................................. 14 5.2.1 General discussion of recommendations............................................................................ 14 5.2.2 New or consolidated recommendations agreed at NTF-1 .................................................. 14 5.2.3 New information on South Piltun (including the 2D surveys planned for 2012) ............... 15 5.2.4 D-Tags ............................................................................................................................... 15 5.2.5 Possible ways to obtain, validate, analyse and interpret data from previous seismic surveys by other companies (including Gazprom and Rosneft) ....................................................... 15 5.2.6 Cumulative noise ................................................................................................................ 15 5.2.7 Review progress on analyses of the 2010 4D data ............................................................. 15 5.2.8 Future of the joint programme ........................................................................................... 15 5.2.9 Panel discussions of NTF-1 ............................................................................................... 16 5.3 REPORT (PROVISIONAL) OF FEBRUARY 2012 MEETING (NTF-2) ...................................................... 16 5.3.1 4-D analyses....................................................................................................................... 16 5.3.2 Noise component of the ‘Issues’ document. ....................................................................... 17 5.3.3 Update of general South Piltun project ............................................................................. 17 5.3.4 2012 2D seismic surveys .................................................................................................... 17 5.3.5 Further progress on the consideration of cumulative impacts ........................................... 18 5.3.6 Chair’s concluding remarks ............................................................................................... 18 5.3.7 Panel’s discussion of NTF-2 .............................................................................................. 18 5.4 UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF PREVIOUS NOISE RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................. 19 5.5 NEW MAJOR RECOMMENDATIONS ARISING OUT OF PANEL DISCUSSION OF THE NTF-1 AND NTF-2 REPORTS .......................................................................................................................................... 19 5.5.1 Recommendation WGWAP-11/006 .................................................................................... 19 5.5.2 Recommendation WGWAP-11/007 .................................................................................... 20 5.5.3 Recommendation WGWAP-11/008 .................................................................................... 21 5.5.4 Recommendation WGWAP-11/009 .................................................................................... 22 5.6 FUTURE WORK OF NTF .................................................................................................................... 22 6 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING TASK FORCE (INCLUDING OIL SPILLS) ............... 23 6.1 REPORT OF DECEMBER 2011 EMTF MEETING ................................................................................. 23 6.2 UPDATE ON OIL RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................... 23 6.3 UPDATE ON ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................. 25 6.4 FUTURE WORK OF EMTF ................................................................................................................. 25 Page 2 WGWAP-11 Report of the eleventh meeting of the WGWAP 7 PHOTO-ID ........................................................................................................................................ 25 7.1 UPDATE ON STATUS OF CATALOGUE COMPARISONS ......................................................................... 25 7.2 STATUS OF COMPARISONS OF SAKHALIN CATALOGUE TO COLLECTIONS FROM OTHER REGIONS (E.G. CANADA, WESTERN US, MEXICO) ................................................................................................... 26 7.3 FUTURE PHOTO-ID EFFORTS ............................................................................................................ 27 8 POPULATION ASSESSMENT ...................................................................................................... 27 8.1 UPDATED ASSESSMENT (VALIDITY OF ASSUMPTIONS ETC.) .............................................................. 27 8.2 STOCK IDENTITY .............................................................................................................................. 28 9 UPDATE ON SOUTH PILTUN PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING ............................... 28 10 UPDATE ON ‘ISSUES’ DOCUMENT (WGWAP-11/5) (INCLUDING MULTI-YEAR SUMMARY REPORT BY SEIC/ENL) – A RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATION WGWAP-9/020 ................................................................................................................................. 30 10.1 NOISE .............................................................................................................................................. 30 10.2 BENTHOS ......................................................................................................................................... 32 10.3 SHIP STRIKES ................................................................................................................................... 32 10.4 OIL SPILLS........................................................................................................................................ 32 10.5 CUMULATIVE EFFECTS ..................................................................................................................... 32 10.6 OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................................... 33 11 ACTIVITIES BY SEIC AND OTHER COMPANIES ON SAKHALIN SHELF IN 2011, 2012 AND BEYOND ................................................................................................................................