Threats to Marine Animals & Conservation

[Lisbeth]

OCEANS IN DISTRESS

Octopus fishing in False Bay is killing Bryde’s whales, and with them, a magical and unseen kingdom

By Swati Thiyagarajan• 17 June 2019

Swati Thiyagarajan is head of Conservation and Campaign of the Cape Town-based Seachange Project, and is also the Environment Editor for New Delhi Television, one of Asia’s largest independent news networks.

Click on the title to read the article and sea the photos.

[Lisbeth]

In Numbers

9

The number of Vaquita porpoises believed to be left in the wild. They are the world's most endangered marine mammal.

https://youtu.be/YklEpXKs-Zc

[Alf]

Very sad that only 9 left

[Flutterby]

They are beautiful.

[Richprins]

Far East again!

[Klipspringer]

https://www.iol.co.za/ios/news/fears-fo ... t-33188261


Fears for marine life as drilling gets go ahead off KZN coast
NEWS / 19 SEPTEMBER 2019, 10:45AM / DUNCAN GUY

Durban - Offshore seismic activity relating to gas and oil exploration could cause whales to beach and have a devastating affect on marine life.
Durban-based environmental activist Janet Solomon’s Oceans Not Oil organisation plans to meet the month-end deadline to appeal against companies being given permission to drill for oil and gas off the KwaZulu-Natal coast, a process that involves noisy seismic activity.


Italian multinational Eni and Sasol have been given permission to do just this.

“The coincidence of stranding and seismic activity has to be questioned,” she told the Independent on Saturday.

Solomon said whale species were just one type of marine creature that would suffer from seismic sounds in the water.

“An enormous amount of marine life relies on sound for survival. They use it for social bonding, finding mates, aggression, finding prey, avoiding predators and navigation.

“It has been shown that these survey sounds can be heard underwater thousands of kilometres from the survey ship. Needless to say, these surveys have some devastating impacts to marine life including soft tissue damage, hearing loss, the bends, disorientation, displacement, migratory diversion and animal stranding.”

She said in spite of the success story of humpback whale population increasing, threats were escalating.

“Seismic surveys are one of them.”

She said the airguns towed behind an oil-and-gas-prospecting seismic survey vessel would detonate with a force powerful enough to penetrate 40km deep into the Earth’s crust, below the sea floor to detect oil reserves.

“These bursts of pressure sound waves are generated every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day and can continue for six months at a time. This high-intensity sound reaches 230 decibels or more, comparable to the sound of a space shuttle launch. To give context, in South Africa, the labour law does not allow employees to work in noise levels over more than 85dBA (150dBA equivalent in water),” she said.

KZN Wildlife Ezemvelo marine ecologist Jennifer Olbers said a stranded whale could drain millions from the budgets of already-stretched public entities and, since the 1986 moratorium on whaling, there were many more whales around.

“The hiring of machinery and disposing of the carcass at a landfill are among the costs involved in dealing with a 12m-15m whale. They are very difficult to drag back into the sea.”

She doubted the coastal municipalities would have the capacity, or staff, to deal with a whale coming ashore.

Olbers said Ezemvelo, which is battling financially, would be delegated to deal with stranded animals.

“The Department of Environmental Affairs don’t fund strandings in this province and the Department of Mineral Resources may have a response plan. That’s all very well but if there’s no money, how do we respond?

“Ezemvelo is not ready for oil-injured animals.”

Then there’s the threat of oil spills, aggravated by the Agulhas Current running at an average of nine knots.

“All emergency equipment for any kind of accidental discharge is at Saldanha Bay,” said Solomon.

“At the very best it would take two to three days to get the equipment here. That’s a real concern,” she said.

She also said pollution containing heavy metals - sometimes highly toxic and radioactive - could easily fall into the sea at drilling operations.

Then there are constitutional and procedural issues Oceans Not Oils will raise in its appeal.

“There is grave concern about oil and gas being placed under the Department of Minerals and Petroleum Agency SA - both become the judge and the jury in this process.

“The DEA should be overseeing this but at no stage did the DEA get involved until right at the end.”

Desmond D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance said his organisation, like others, would contest Environmental Impact Assessment statements that had been submitted.

He also said any of the drilling - part of Operation Phakisa to unlock the ocean’s economic potential - would be in conflict with South Africa trying to reduce its carbon footprint in line with the Paris Accord.

“They committed to move away from fossil fuels,” he said, calling the government’s wanting to go ahead with drilling an act of “lying and deceiving”.

He also said in the climate change era of “nature fighting back”, drilling operations could causing spills that would affect the livelihood of many coastal fishing people.

The Oceanographic Research Institute spokesperson Ann Kunz said that over the next two weeks, scientists would be considering their response.

Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa said it too was considering the an appeal

Guidelines for public comment can be found on https://oceansnotoil.org/

The Independent on Saturday

[Lisbeth]

with a force powerful enough to penetrate 40km deep into the Earth’s crust, below the sea floor to detect oil reserves.

40 km sounds a bit exaggerated.

[Lisbeth]

By Tony Carnie• 17 December 2019


A dugong mother and calf. Dugongs are herbivores, feeding mainly on sea grasses and are therefore restricted to shallow coastal habitats with ........

Sasol is planning a new oil and gas exploration venture next to Bazaruto National Park, spurring the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to call for more intensive action to safeguard the last viable population of dugongs in East Africa.

The clear and shallow waters off the coast of East Africa were once home to a multitude of dugongs – strange, mermaid-like sea mammals that have all but vanished from the western part of the Indian Ocean.


The Bazaruto Archipelago includes five offshore islands — Bazaruto, Benguerra, Margaruque, Bangue and Santa Carolina. The South African energy and chemical group Sasol has already conducted 3D seismic exploration in deep water to the north of Bazaruto and now plans to conduct further underwater sound-blasting tests in shallower water in the heart of the last dugong stronghold on the East African coast. (Map: supplied)

Also known as “sea cows”, dugongs can live for 70 years, grow up to 3m long and weigh more than 500kg.

As recently as 1967, researchers saw herds of up to 500 dugongs swimming off the coast of Somalia, while similar-sized herds also grazed on seagrass meadows as far south as the Mozambique capital of Maputo.

But over the last few decades, their numbers have crashed dramatically. Today, the last viable population in this region clings to life in the vicinity of the Bazaruto Archipelago, a cluster of tropical islands off the central Mozambican province of Inhambane.

It is here that the South African chemical and energy giant Sasol is exerting renewed pressure on the Mozambican government, seeking permission to deploy oil and gas drilling rigs to dig test wells, as well as a seismic ship to conduct loud underwater sound-blasting surveys in the heart of the last East African dugong stronghold.

[img]https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-cont ... 68x513.jpg[/img
Though the dugong is classified at a global level as ‘vulnerable’ to extinction on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, local dugong experts have proposed that Mozambique’s dugongs be regarded as an IUCN special management unit and classed as ‘highly endangered’. (Photo: Mandy Etpison)

Should Sasol strike it lucky, marine conservation groups fear that petroleum leaks could be devastating for dugongs, dolphins, whales and other animals.

This has spurred the world’s top marine mammal experts to sound the alarm and to declare a 16,280 km2 stretch of the Mozambique coastline as one of the world’s most important living spaces for dugongs and other marine mammals.

The Dugong islands. Dugongs have been all but extirpated from the East African region, other than in the Bazaruto Archipelago. This dugong population, estimated at between 250 and 350 individuals, represents the last known viable dugong population in the western Indian Ocean.

At a meeting in Barcelona on 9 December 2019, the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) designated the area around Bazaruto as one of the world’s 37 new “Important Marine Mammal Areas” following a rigorous scientific peer-review process.

These areas, known as IMMAs, are classified as places that have the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation. According to the IUCN, this declaration is intended to act as a red flag, spotlighting important habitat for marine mammals which may lead to marine protected areas status, ship or noise directives, new marine spatial planning and other conservation measures.

Though these areas do not have legally-protected status, the IUCN suggests that their designation is “an important first step toward greater protection efforts”.

Erich Hoyt, co-chair of the IUCN taskforce on Marine Mammal Protected Areas said: “Marine mammals face enormous pressures across the globe with threats ranging from fishing to ship strikes and pollution. If we are to prevent species extinctions, it is vital that we address the threats where these species breed, feed and live.

Co-chair Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, who visited Mozambique recently to meet government officials and other groups, said: “There are fewer than 300 of these extraordinary creatures here, but, unlike elsewhere along the continent’s coast, this population of dugongs is at least still viable.”

The Bazaruto Archipelago to Inhambane Bay IMMA is also home to the endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphin and 10 other whale and dolphin species.

Quite apart from oil exploration, illegal gill netting and poaching have created additional threats. The IUCN estimates that this dugong population can only sustain a maximum of two human-caused deaths of productive females per year before numbers crash.

Sasol was awarded offshore exploration and concession rights in 2005 for an area known as Block 16 and 19, later conducting extensive 3D seismic tests in deep-water sections of this block.

However, due to the environmental sensitivity of exploration in shallow-water sections adjacent to the Bazaruto National Park, exploration was suspended in 2008 until the Mozambican authorities published a Strategic Environmental Assessment.

This assessment has not been published yet and Sasol has renewed pressure on the government over recent months to allow it to conduct further seismic tests and drill exploration wells, right on the boundary of the officially-proclaimed Bazaruto National Park.

It has also appointed the Golder and Associates consultancy group to conduct a new scoping study and public consultation process.

Sasol spokesman Alex Anderson insists that: “There are currently no contractual exploration commitments in the licence and no immediate plans to conduct seismic or exploration activities.

“Sasol, as an environmentally conscious company, will do its best to protect the environment, including marine life, and minimise any potential environmental impact… Wherever we operate, we undertake exploration activities according to international best practice standards and in accordance with local laws, within the parameters set out by competent authorities and agencies, and engage in dialogue with stakeholders following locally determined norms, as well as recognised best practices.”

Nevertheless, several local stakeholders from the tourism, conservation and fisheries sectors are worried about Sasol’s exploration plans.

Opponents – who include several marine scientists, local homeowners, tourism lodges, fishers, cruise and diving operators – fear that explosive underwater seismic noise and drilling to depths of nearly 2km below the seabed will create unacceptable risks to the marine environment, and potential harm to the fisheries industry.

In their submission to Golder, a group of seven stakeholders said: “Sound waves generated during seismic surveys in the project area will produce intense noise that can result in a multitude of acute adverse biological impacts to marine life during the approximately four-month timeframe seismic surveying is expected to occur.”

They say seismic soundwaves of up to 260 decibels, which can travel over distances of tens to hundreds of kilometres, can induce permanent and temporary hearing loss in several species. Another concern is that the sound blasts will spook marine mammals, driving them away from vital feeding grounds for several months.

According to the IUCN task force report, herds of as many as 500 dugongs were evident off the coasts of Somali and Kenya in the late 1960s. As recently as 1996, there were sightings of herds of 80 dugongs at Manda Bay in Kenya, although the once common sightings off Tanzania soon became restricted to the area around Kilwa and the Rufiji Delta.

Further to the south, small herds of up to 10 dugongs were seen off Inhaca Island near Maputo in the 1970s, but marked declines were reported across the East African region from the 1990s onwards.

By the turn of the century, dugongs had all but disappeared from Maputo Bay and Dr Vic Cockcroft of the Centre for Dolphin Studies at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, reported that the Bazaruto region supported the last viable dugong population along the East African coast.

Ironically, perhaps, Sasol has been aware of the plight of the species for more than a decade, having sponsored a population assessment study of the Bazaruto dugongs from 2006 to 2008.

Following a meeting on 18 November 2019 at Dugong Lodge at Inhassoro, the IUCN task team reported that: “It should be noted that Sasol was once supportive of this population of dugongs, supporting substantial research, and they could be supportive again.”

Or, perhaps, not.

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Drones are making waves with a new way to whale watch

Endangered Wildlife Trust -16 September 2021

Changing the face of marine conservation research, specialised drone technology and processes are being used to observe and assess Southern Right Whales in a cost-effective, non-invasive manner that will help to protect this species and assess the impacts of a changing climate on sensitive marine ecosystem.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has partnered with the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute (MRI) Whale Unit to enable critical research on the body conditions and behaviour patterns of Southern Right Whales (Eubalaena australis) using drone technology. The body condition and calving rates of these majestic animals are important factors when assessing the potential threat of global warming to the Southern Right Whale population. Their main food source is krill (a small shrimplike planktonic crustacean), and current research indicates that changes in ocean temperatures affect the abundance and location of these and other creatures, with far-reaching environmental consequences.

Dr Els Vemeulen, Research Manager of the MRI Whale Unit, said: “Drone technology has revolutionized the way we conduct our research. Using drones, we can gather overhead images of right whales every year, allowing us to track the variation in their body condition over time in a very cost-effective manner, and collect additional photo-identification data, which allows us to assess the residency time of individual animals on the South African breeding ground. Also, an aerial view of these animals reveals more information on their behaviour than viewing them from a boat. It is truly a unique piece of technology that can be adjusted for various research projects, and we aim to apply it in much more of our research going forward.”

In this study, the Whale Unit uses photographs to assess the temporal change in the body condition of South Africa’s Southern Right Whales. These images are a mixture of aerial photographs collected in South Africa in 1988 and 1989 using a helicopter and, more recently, photographs collected using a drone. Drone images from South Africa are also applied in a comparative study with images of Southern Right Whales captured in Australia and Argentina.

After data filtering, the selected images are used for photogrammetry purposes. Using a custom-written script, measurements of the total body length and width are made (in pixels) at 5% increments perpendicular to the body axis for each whale. Subsequently, using the altitude data from the drone, these measurements in pixels can be converted to true measurements in meters. Researchers can now calculate the Body Condition Index (BCI) using the established height-width ratio of a Southern Right Whale. A positive BCI means that an animal is in better condition than the average of the sample population and a negative BCI indicate that the animal is in poorer than average condition. Clear images of the head are also used to identify animals, enabling the long-term tracking of several individual whales.

Lourens Leeuwner of the EWT Drone project said: “We are really excited to assist the Whale Unit with this important work by providing a licensed drone pilot, ensuring all work can be conducted in accordance with permit conditions. This research is a perfect example of why the EWT started the Drone project: to support conservation work across the country through affordable aerial solutions.”
The MRI Whale Unit will be presenting the findings of their research at the 2nd Drone users conference: Conservation & Agriculture, co-hosted by the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, The EWT, and the United Nations Development Project, which can be attended virtually or in person from Monday, 29 November 2021 to Wednesday, 1 December 2021 in Elsenburg, Stellenbosch, Western Cape. For more details, go to www.dronesatwork.co.za

You can support the MRI whale unit research by adopting a whale at www.adoptawhale.co.za

As a registered RPAS operator, the EWT is committed to the legal, safe, and responsible use of drones while promoting the use of this technology in the conservation sector. We have an RPAS management team, including a safety manager, quality manager, and flight operations manager.