Observe and Protect: Wildlife observers in the oil and gas industry.

AuthorOrr, Vanessa
PositionANIMAL OBSERVATION

As they look to develop Alaska's resources, oil and gas companies, as well as the state and federal agencies that regulate them, have to strike a delicate balance between meeting the needs of those in the business of fossil fuels and protecting the fish and animals that could be negatively affected by exploration and ongoing operations.

For this reason, oil and gas companies employ a number of people--ranging from offshore marine mammal observers to onshore environmental scientists--to study the environment at potential exploration sites, document animal interactions, perform ongoing field studies, and mitigate adverse effects that might be caused by human activity.

Offshore Observation

"One characteristic shared among all observers is their passion for the marine environment; they take their jobs very seriously," says Luke Szymanski, vice president of marine scientific services company AiS. "They help the oil and gas companies understand and meet permit requirements while at the same time helping the government agencies meet their mandates for protecting our natural resources. Having unbiased third parties conduct compliance monitoring is essential to assuring the public that mitigation plans are implemented appropriately."

Established in 1988, AIS is primarily engaged in offshore data collection on commercial and recreational fisheries and protected species monitoring during at-sea commercial operations. The company has offices in Alaska, Washington State, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and has provided protected species monitoring on the LNG pipeline project in Cook Inlet and in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

AIS monitors for protected species during geophysical and geotechnical surveys as well as during offshore construction of wind turbines. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon spill, the company was instrumental in making sure that sensitive marine wildlife such as sea turtles weren't harmed while BP was burning or skimming the spilled oil.

"Our role was to observe for marine wildlife before the oil was ignited to make sure that the area was clear," says Szymanski. "We were also on hand to document any marine wildlife interactions and to continue to observe the area while it was burning. While we were put in place by the federal government, we were actually paid by BP; in most of the work for the oil and gas Industry, we are employed by private companies."

In typical oil and gas operations, the role AIS and companies like it play is to monitor, develop, and carry out mitigation plans. "In the case of an incidental harassment authorization, where the mitigation plan includes an exclusion zone, we monitor to make sure that animals do not enter that zone, and if they do, we mitigate the issue by having the company shut down their equipment when it is safe to do so," says Szymanski.

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