PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Conservationists from the Garden Route have expressed concern over a new proposed ocean-bed survey between Plettenberg Bay and Gqeberha, ranging between 120km and 45km off-shore.
The public has until 15 May to submit comments on the speculative 3D seismic survey proposed by CGC, an international geophysical survey company specialising in high-performance computing, which has applied for a permit from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
More than 100 people attended a presentation at the Piesang Valley community centre on 13 April, part of a basic assessment process required for an environmental assessment (EA).
It was conducted by SLR Consulting, the environmental consultants employed by CGC. SLR also held a follow-up virtual briefing on the proposal on Monday 24 April, attended online by about 30 interested and affected parties.
Contact details for SLR Consulting:
- WhatsApp: 0639005536
- Email: cggsouthcoast@slrconsulting.com
- https://www.slrconsulting.com/en/public-documents/chg-algoa
Decibels
The proposal is for CGC to explore waters extending from as shallow as 200m in an area of about 9 000km², to a depth of 4 000m. The probe area is 45km long and 500m wide.
Up to about 1 200 sonar pulses are emitted per hour during the seismic mapping process. This seismic activity can generate up to 240dB, a level that is well known to be potentially disorientating to most marine inhabitants.
A concern raised at the Piesang Valley meeting as well as during the virtual online meeting last week relates to the close proximity to "no-go" breeding areas of various species and an economically important hake fishing source.
Area ratings
In its "non-technical" presentation, CGC said the majority of the biological environment in the area to be surveyed is rated as being of "least concern". An inshore portion is rated as "vulnerable" and the Kingklip Ridge is rated as "endangered".
CGC said one offshore marine protected area (MPA), the Port Elizabeth Corals, is located within the area of interest, while the Tsitsikamma, Sardinia Bay and Addo Elephant MPAs are located inshore and no seismic survey operations would be undertaken there.
Not skirting the issues
"Unlike the previous (and obviously 'orchestrated') meetings by Total Energies for other projects, the facilitator as well as the representatives of CGC encouraged questions from the floor, and did not appear to skirt the issues that they were presented with," said Ted Botha, Garden Route representative of Wessa (Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa).
Botha pointed out that a number of questions related to the "somewhat dubious approach" in which they will rely on spotting of marine inhabitants ahead of the seismic platform to see signs of mammals in their path.
However, a lot of doubt and concern was expressed in the virtual meeting about the efficacy of this process.
Points were also raised about the known sensitivity of whales, orcas and small marine mammals to the intense blast of sound emanating from the seismic guns, compared with sonar pings from submarines.
"There is a plethora of scientific evidence which suggests the harmful effects that seismic shock such as that emanating from air gun activity causes," said Botha.
"According to the literature, low frequency active sonar (LFA sonar) has the potential to kill, deafen and/or disorient whales, dolphins and other marine life."
The exploration block that will be part of the seismic survey, spanning between Plettenberg Bay and Gqeberha, including the Port Elizabeth Corals Marine Protected Area.
Carbon footprint
During the virtual meeting a panel member suggested that the seismic survey would help "ameliorate our carbon footprint".
This was vigorously criticised by several people in the audience as "pie in the sky", as there is clearly no relationship between drilling for gas or oil and lowering of our carbon footprint, while it in some way contributes to carbon capture.
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