BOEM Establishes Marine Survey Framework

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued a Record of Decision (ROD) establishing the highest practicable level of mitigation measures and safeguards to reduce or eliminate impacts to marine life while setting a path forward for appropriate geological and geophysical (G&G) survey activities off the Mid- and South Atlantic coast to update 40-year old data on the region’s offshore resources.

The ROD does not authorize any G&G activities, but rather it establishes a framework for additional mandatory environmental reviews for site-specific actions and identifies broadly-applicable measures governing any future G&G activities in the region.

As new scientific information becomes available, these additional findings can be incorporated into the survey-specific environmental reviews through an adaptive management approach.

BOEM will monitor implementation of these mitigations and, if warranted, will modify them as described in provisions of the PEIS addressing “adaptive management.”

“After thoroughly reviewing the analysis, coordinating with Federal agencies and considering extensive public input, the bureau has identified a path forward that addresses the need to update the nearly four-decade-old data in the region while protecting marine life and cultural sites,” said Acting BOEM Director Walter D. Cruickshank.

“The bureau’s decision reflects a carefully analyzed and balanced approach that will allow us to increase our understanding of potential offshore resources while protecting the human, marine, and coastal environments.”

BOEM’s preferred alternative, which was presented in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) released in February, includes the most protection for environmental and cultural resources of the alternatives considered consistent with moving forward with survey activity.

Mitigation measures include vessel strike avoidance measures, special closure areas to protect the main migratory route for the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, consideration of geographic separation of simultaneous seismic airgun surveys, and Passive Acoustic Monitoring to supplement visual observers and improve detection of marine mammals prior to and during seismic surveys.

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Press Release; July 22, 2014; Image: NOAA