Greenpeace Sends Vessel to Monitor Arctic’s Seismic Mapping

Greenpeace turned the spotlight on the far north of the Barents Sea, claiming that Norway ‘is once more falling short of its promise of applying only the best environmental standards.’ The green group is organising an intervention to stop seismic mapping of the Arctic. 

‘Seismic mapping is the very first step of oil exploration. Before the oil rigs even arrive, before the drills go in the seabed, companies must first determine where to find the precious pockets of oil. So, right now, we're en route to intercept a vessel conducting these tests to expose this sneak attack on the Arctic by the Norwegian state,’ reads a note released on Monday. 

According to Greenpeace, the sound pulses used in this process are ‘incredibly’ dangerous for marine mammals. The green group wrote that the blasts can be up to 260 dB, while the nuclear bomb dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki reached 248 dB. Greenpeace also wrote that a sound wave of 202 dB would kill a human.

‘Other Arctic countries like Greenland, the US and Canada, however, do have some regulations in place that require the air blasts to stop if marine mammals are spotted within a certain distance of the ship. Of course, this is still a long way off from actually preventing harm to marine animals, but at least it's a better environmental standard than what Norway can present. Norway is once again falling short of its promise of applying only the best environmental standard.’

Greenpeace reports that the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said that it will neither publish nor sell the results of seismic testing work, which are considered useless also because Norway has regulations in place that forbid drilling this far north. 

The Esperanza, the largest ship in the Greenpeace fleet, will follow the vessel of the seismic company Dolphin Geophysical that is carrying out the job commissioned by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). It will follow the vessel for a few days, documenting the ongoing activities.

Back in May, the NPD said it would map the subsurface on the Mørerand High and Gjallar Ridge South in the Norwegian Sea in the current year, explaining it aims at acquiring knowledge about unexplored acreages. 

“Geologically speaking, this is a blank spot on the map,” project manager Nils Rune Sandstå of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate commented in a note.