A major part of the Alaska LNG Project crossing the Cook Inlet is biological studies to ensure ocean animals are not impacted.
Caryn Rea is with the project as the Senior Environmental Impact Statement Adviser and her role at Conoco Phillips is Senior Biologist.
Rea: “So my job is to advise our team on how to minimize impacts to beluga whales. So if we’re out in a vessel, some of those mitigation measures would be slow down your vessels if you see belugas in the area, if you see belugas approaching slow down your engines or put them in idle, if you can move to avoid them and things like that, so that’s kind of the guidance I give to these guys.”
Beluga whales were listed as endangered via the Endangered Species Act in 2008 and scientists recently reported that despite a recent rise in numbers, Alaska’s beluga population still appears to be in decline.
Rea said there are other animals to keep in mind are Humpback Whales, Stellar Sea Lions, Otters, and Harbor Porpoises, along with a multitude of fisheries, however the Belugas are the “charismatic megafauna”, or the most well known, top priority for the project.
Belugas communicate via echolocation and she added before off shore field work or construction is done, the project must investigate how much noise they will make.
Rea: “If we’re doing activities that produces sound that could interfere with their ability to communicate then we need to know about it. So looking at our program this year, the sonar or remote sensing activities that you’re talking about, those are actually at a higher frequency that belugas can’t hear. But there are some activities that are within their hearing range so we’re working with [National] Marine Fisheries [Service] to get approval to conduct those activities.”
This summer the project plans to use a type of sonar to map more of the pipeline’s potential route across the Cook Inlet.
She said that since belugas are migratory, the project is working to schedule off shore activities for when the whales are not in the region.