By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Safeguards on seismic testing foran oil and gas project in the Pacific have shielded endangeredwhales from harm and are a model for managing the deafeningblasts, the world's largest environmental group said on Monday.
Conservationists working with Sakhalin Energy Investment CoLtd in Russia from 2006-12 said the tiny population ofendangered Western Grey whales had risen about 3 percent a yearto 140, despite seismic testing near their feeding grounds.
Seismic testing bounces sound waves into the seabed to seekdeposits of oil and gas. It can harm whales and other marinelife with blasts of 230 to 250 decibels, so loud that they thatcan sometimes be detected 4,000 kms (2,500 miles) away.
"This work helps to set a standard," Carl Gustaf Lundin,director of the global marine and polar programme at the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature), told Reuters.
"Once you have raised the bar ... other companies will lookbad if they are not deploying it," he said. The IUCN includesgovernments, scientists and conservation organisations and isthe world's biggest environmental alliance.
He said there was no sign of "significant direct impact onthe whales" from the testing off Sakhalin island north of Japan.Sakhalin Energy groups Gazprom, Royal DutchShell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
A common and worrying effect of seismic testing was that thewhales move away from their normal feeding grounds, Doug Nowacekof Duke University, lead author of the findings published in thejournal Aquatic Mammals, told Reuters.
"The potential exists, if animals get too close (to testingareas), for trauma and injury," he said, adding that to hisknowledge no such cases have been documented.
SPRING SEISMIC
The IUCN said the guidelines called for thorough advancestudy of wildlife to help decide when it was best to carry outseismic tests, limiting noise levels, halting surveys if animalswere seen in the area and follow-up monitoring.
"This is a comprehensive guidebook for how to do this withminimal impact," said Nowacek.
Off Sakhalin, for instance, understanding whale migrationsmeant it was best to do seismic testing in spring, after ice hadmelted but before many whales had returned to the region.
Whale sightings also varied a lot from year to year.
"A clear message is that it is not enough to send out a fewpeople for a week or two in a boat and then decide how manywhales there are," said Greg Donovan, who chairs an IUCN grouplooking into the problem of the whales and seismic surveys.
More stringent guidelines would tend to push up costs ofenvironmental monitoring, especially if it meant million-dollardelays to drilling. On the other hand, harming wildlife coulddamage companies' reputations.
Whales are especially vulnerable to seismic testing.
"Whales rely on sound for communication, navigation andforaging," an IUCN statement said. "Exposure to loud noise fromseismic surveys can result in stress and behaviour changes,affect foraging and nursing, or cause direct physical damage."
