Impacts on the marine environment generated by Oil & Gas projects is a globally recognised area of concern. Impacts on biophysical components – impacting marine life - associated with oil spills or contaminated water discharges, as well as underwater noise are well known issues and they constantly attract attention from the media.
RINA has a significant track record in supporting O&G companies to face general environmental and social challenges and nowadays we are building additional expertise and experience in marine biodiversity and sustainability. We have just been awarded the marine mammals monitoring for the drilling operation in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Portugal that will be performed by Eni in Q3 / Q4 2018.
The activities will be carried out by a joint team of RINA environmental engineers and environmental marine scientists, who include trained and certified Marine Mammal Observers (MMOs) also covering Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM activities).
The field activities will include monitoring and registration of presence of marine mammals at a defined distance from the drilling site. In particular, visual monitoring during daylight and acoustic monitoring during night hours and in case of bad visibility. The monitoring activity will be carried out according to the JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee) standards as well as to the detailed monitoring plan agreed between Eni and the Portuguese competent permitting and control authorities.
The aim of the monitoring is to get a clear understanding of marine mammals’ presence before, during and after the drilling activities. As a result, we will be able to identify the most effective mitigation measures to avoid and/or minimize the disturbance or the damages to the mammals (caused in particular by underwater noise) and to control the effectiveness of the mitigation measures implemented.
Aiming at protecting the sensitive marine habitat and the marine life, the monitoring activities can definitely be seen as an important step in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on the “conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources” (SDG 14) and – in particular – the following targets:
• sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts and their resilience, and take actions for their timely restoration to achieve healthy and productive oceans;
• increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of fragile countries;
• enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want.
