Seismic survey off Australia risks killing whales, says Greenpeace

Woodside Energy’s plans to use ultrasound to hunt for gas off Australia’s coast could damage the hearing of endangered whales and should be banned, Greenpeace said.

The Perth-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier is waiting for approval to start seismic exploration at the $12bn Scarborough project, a huge reserve off Western Australia that could account for about a 10th of the nation’s LNG exports. The technology uses ultrasound to search for deposits, but may affect wildlife that is reliant on sound for communication.

“Seismic blasting is the one of the loudest sounds in the ocean, and the noise pollution can cause irreparable harm to whales’ hearing,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner Richard George said on Tuesday. “Whales use their hearing to communicate and find food, so a deaf whale is a dead whale.”

The gas producer could get permission from the regulator to carry out seismic exploration as early as December, a peak time for whale migration in the area, according to Greenpeace.

Woodside has carried out scientific studies that “demonstrate the activities will be performed in a manner that prevents injury to whales and minimises the potential for biologically significant behavioural disturbance”, the company said in a statement.

The chances of encountering endangered pygmy blue whales and other species had “been assessed and is expected to be low, even if the timing of the activity overlaps peak periods for northbound and southbound pygmy blue whale migration”, the producer said.

Greenpeace has for years campaigned against Woodside’s plans to develop the site.

Scarborough was approved by Woodside last year and would produce 8-million tonnes a year of LNG for export to Asia. That is about 10% of current exports from Australia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of the fuel.