Unique study shows oil, gas seismic work not affecting Gulf sp...(o. They are the largest of all toothed ...)

Date:8/21/2008

o. They are the largest of all toothed whales and can reach lengths of 60 feet or more and live 60 years or longer. Their primary diet is squid and fish and they have been known to dive as deep as 7,000 feet. Humans no longer hunt them for their oil, but the whale in Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick was a sperm whale.

Sperm whales are not often seen because they prefer to stay in the deep waters of the Gulf, usually in depths of 3,000 feet or more and at least 150 miles offshore, Biggs says.

"Sperm whales go to where their food source is, and that means very deep water. So folks that do see them are marine mammal observers who ride the seismic survey vessels and the workers on the big oil and gas rigs, and even that does not happen often," Biggs adds.

The primary concern facing the scientific research group was noise there's more of it in the world's oceans than you might think. A study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that the world's oceans are 10 times noisier since the 1960s, and at any one time, there are as many as 30,000 ships circling the globe.

Biggs says that over the course of five summers, 98 sperm whales were tagged with devices that relayed back critical data such as measurements about sound levels and behavioral aspects of whales, including tracking their movements. Of particular concern was the effect that loud low-frequency noises, such as those created by seismic activity, might have on sperm whales in the area.

Oil and gas companies prospect for subsea reservoirs by firing air guns during their seismic work, which government regulators thought might negatively affect sperm whale behavior. Also, the sheer volume of work being done in the Gulf was another concern: The Gulf of Mexico accounts for almost 70 percent of the oil and gas extracted from U.S. waters and there are thousands of oil and gas platforms in the region.

But the study found no unusual effects of contr
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Contact: Keith Randall keith-randall@tamu.edu 979-845-4644 Texas A&M University Source:Eurekalert

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