Offshore light strands seabirds: biologist
Exxonmobil-contracted study ‘should have been done 25 years ago’: Montevecchi
While the Puffin and Petrel Patrol is busy this time of year rescuing stranded seabirds thrown off course by artificial lights along the coast, a scientist said he’s worried about what happens to seabirds once they’re offshore.
“Once we don’t see them, that doesn’t mean they’re not influenced by light,” said Memorial University seabird biologist Bill Montevecchi.
It’s well-documented in various parts of the world that some seabirds can become stranded at night due to artificial light.
In Newfoundland, strandings are especially common amongst the Leach’s storm petrel – a seabird protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act and whose numbers have decreased by 3.3 million since the 1980s.
It’s currently listed by Birdlife International as a vulnerable species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
The population at Baccalieu Island – the species’ largest population – decreased 39 per cent between the 1980s and 2013, and there’s no firm data as to why.
“There’s lots of things that affect storm petrels. They get preyed on by gulls, there’s mercury pollution, there’s climate change, there’s food, and there’s offshore lighting,” said Montevecchi, noting Newfoundland’s offshore “was a formally opaque environment” before oil production began within the past few decades.
Montevecchi said offshore lighting is also an area of human impact in which proactive changes could be made, but those changes aren’t being implemented to the level which he believes they should.
Data from existing offshore platforms’ bird salvage logs submitted to Environment Canada indicates that between 2003 and 2014 a total of 2,048 birds of 31 species were recorded, of which 86 per cent were Leach’s storm petrels. The vast majority of strandings occurred during September and October, correlating with fledging season.
Montevecchi questions the reliability of those numbers because they are self-reported. He said it’s important to have independent observers on platforms to ensure validity and transparency.
In the past, his team suggested they could do this work but he said they were denied due to safety concerns.
Now Exxonmobil has contracted environmental consulting firm LGL Limited to study seabird attraction to the Hebron platform, “the purpose of which is to address questions raised by Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service and the public,” LGL Limited stated in its proposed study approach, prepared in March 2017. Montevecchi said it’s good to see the available information compiled in that report accessible to the public online.
“It is clear from the provisos in the report that available data are weak, lacking information on observer coverage, reporting and effort,” he said.
The three-year study, now in its final year according to Lynn Evans, a spokesperson for Exxonmobil, was developed in consultation with the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Montevecchi said such a study “should have been done 25 years ago. We’re missing 3 million seabirds and we have no credible information.”
Independent observers needed on platforms: Montevecchi
The LGL Limited proposed study document indicated there should be three two-hour survey periods per night during their study observations, but because the study will be conducted from on board a supply vessel rather than the platform, “logistically this will rarely be possible due to other duties of the supply vessel,” it stated in the document.
Montevecchi said there are also assumptions about observer coverage and reporting in the proposed study document that conflict with reports he’s received directly from ship and platform personnel.
“I have observers that come into my office and tell me that what’s being done is not adequate… men on ships, men on the platform who are observers…who are supposed to be looking at birds and they come in and they say we don’t do anything.”
Montevecchi provided meeting notes to The Telegram in which operator-employed observers told him observation protocols were reduced from 20 minutes down to one minute, and that such duties were given to a radio operator who had no time to make observations.
“There’s lots of things that affect storm petrels. They get preyed on by gulls, there’s mercury pollution, there’s climate change, there’s food, and there’s offshore lighting.” Bill Montevecchi
Montevecchi said the “long-standing issue” of the Canada-newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) not requiring independent observers on platforms “will perpetuate selfreporting by the companies.”
A one-page C-NLOPB document, “Measures to Protect and Monitor Seabirds in Petroleum-related Activity in the Canada-newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area” states drilling rigs have personnel on board “who monitor weather and sightings of seabirds and other marine mammals.” Those personnel are employed by the operators.
Limiting lights offshore
Montevecchi said there should be a more proactive approach to decreasing artificial light offshore.
The C-NLOPB document about protecting seabirds states “operators are required
to minimize their use of light, considering the safety of crew members, to deter seabirds from their vessels.”
The Telegram asked Lesley Rideout, a spokesperson for the C-NLOPB, if the regulator gives specific guidelines about how operators should go about minimizing their use of light.
Rideout could not confirm if there are specific guidelines by press deadline, stating a number of external organizations are involved in protecting and monitoring seabirds and they could not be reached by deadline.
However, Evans said the Hebron platform has “features to minimize bird attraction including direction and positioning of lighting,” adding: “Offshore installations run continuous 24-hour operations. We need to maintain minimum lighting levels on the platform to ensure a safe working environment for our people.”
Rideout also spoke about the Hebron platform specifically and said light colour was something taken into consideration by Exxonmobil in a report sent to the C-NLOPB in September last year.
That report stated that on the Hebron platform they avoided “use of ‘red-spectrum’ light sources (high-pressure sodium fixtures) which are known to increase bird attraction. Instead, utilized a combination of LED, Fluorescent, and Metal Halide fixtures for outdoor areas.”
Montevecchi pointed to rigs in other parts of the world, such as one off the coast of Holland, which utilize green lights – known to be less attractive to birds – as another option that could be implemented here.
“It works for the humans on the platform and it’s much less attractive for the birds, but here in Newfoundland and Labrador, in Eastern Canada, because it’s both a provincial and a federal responsibility, nothing has been done.”
Rideout said the issue of lighting is one the C-NLOPB “will continue to examine…in consultation with subject matter experts in Environment and Climate Change Canada.”