Baffin Inuit org’s delegates get schooled on seismic testing

Rosanne D’Orazio, the interim director of lands and resources for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, with Cape Dorset representative Olayuk Akesuk, describes the basics of seismic testing to QIA board members at the Inuit organization’s annual general meeting, Oct. 8. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association says it will work to include community concerns into a controversial seismic testing survey in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait that’s scheduled to start next year.

The survey, which is to be conducted by Multi-Klient Invest (MKI), will chart the sea bottom for potential oil and gas deposits with sound-emitting seismic testing technology.

This past June, the National Energy Board approved the plan, despite fierce opposition in Clyde River and other north Baffin communities.

In July, the Hamlet of Clyde River and others filed an application in the Federal Court of Appeal that seeks to overturn the NEB’s decision.

For its part, the QIA, which represents the Inuit of Baffin region’s 13 communities, announced Oct. 8 that it would collect concerns in a series of workshops “in the affected communities,” where residents will get a chance to describe how the survey will affect residents’ livelihoods.

“Inuit have made their position clear that we object to any seismic testing before our concerns are properly addressed,” the QIA stated in the news release.

The association said it will “hold a series of Inuit Qaujimatuqangit workshops in the affected communities, to collect IQ and integrate it into the design of the seismic survey.”

The QIA has yet to decide when the workshops will take place.

Community representatives assembled at the Inuit organization’s annual general meeting in Iqaluit had a first look at MKI’s seismic survey plans in a closed in-camera session, Oct. 8, after the association’s acting director of lands and resources gave them a brief overview about seismic testing.

“This is a very big topic, and it’s going to keep coming up,” Rosanne D’Orazio, acting director of lands, told QIA’s board of directors at the meeting.

D’Orazio recommended the board create a committee specialized to deal with the oil and gas exploration issue.

“It will help us know what experts we need to get in touch with, to bring to these kinds of meetings,” she said in her presentation to the board.

Communities and Inuit organizations in Greenland and the Northwest Territories have had similar experiences with seismic testing, and the QIA could also draw on their knowledge, she said.

MKI proposes to carry out a “two-dimensional seismic survey” of deep-sea areas off the eastern coastline of Baffin Island, D’Orazio said.

The firm would conduct the surveys during the ice-free period from June and August, she said, and possibly until October if conditions allow.

Seismic testing is the first step in exploration for oil and gas, which vessels carry out in the high seas. The MKI vessels will use air guns, and tow an array of streamers stretching 10 kilometres behind the vessel, D’Orazio said.

The air gun will generate sound waves in the water, from a depth of about five m below the surface.

“Air guns release the sound every 15 seconds, 24 hours a day,” she said. “The vessel goes at about three knots per hour, so it’s a very slow pace.”

Sound emitted from the air gun travels through the sea, and eventually bounces back from the seafloor. The streamers pick up the deflected signals, which are then used to determine what lies under the seabed.

Coastal communities are most concerned about the sound pulses from air guns. Air guns generate 230 decibels of sound underwater, as measured from one metre away, D’Orazio reported.

One kilometre from the gun, the sound picks up as 170 decibels.

For comparison, a running jet plane from about 30 m away registers as 150 decibels, she said.

“The sound obviously drops, the further away you are. But it levels off at about 100 decibels,” she said.

“That’s important to know, because that could mask other sounds around,” she said, including sounds marine mammals such as whales and seals make to communicate with each other.

Research shows that animals respond to the noise in different ways. Some will leave affected areas. Otherwise, it could interfere with the behaviour of some marine mammals that stay, D’Orazio said.

Research shows some animals could suffer long-term hearing damage if they are close to the sound source, she said.

“One of the major things, is it could affect migration routes. So if they continuously know that there’s something obstructing their migration, then it could lead them into different habitats.”

D’Orazio was quick to point out that “there are a lot of gaps in the research, especially in the eastern Arctic.”

Aside from studies the effects of testing on marine life, “there are experiences out there that I think are important to share,” the lands director said.

For that reason, D’Orazio repeated the need for the QIA to open “a link with Greenland and potentially the Inuvialuit [in the Northwest Territories] to hear what their experiences are, and what they have to say.”