The environment
The physical conditions of the study area are described with focus on weather, oceanography and ice conditions. The presence of icebergs and sea ice in winter and spring will make exploration and development difficult and increase the risk of accidents. Updated information on the physical properties of the environment is under preparation and will be included in an information CD prepared by GEUS (the Geological Survey of Denmark and <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> ) and NERI.
The study area is situated within the Arctic region, with all the typical biological properties of this climatic region: low biodiversity but often numerous and dense animal populations; a relatively simple food web from primary producers to top predators, and with a few species playing a key role in the ecology of the region. In the marine environment the most significant event is the spring bloom of planktonic algae, the primary producers in the food web. These are grazed upon by copepods, including the Calanus species which represent some of the most important and conspicuous key species in the food web.
Fish, seabirds and marine mammals represent some of the higher trophic levels in the marine environment, where polar bear and man are the top predators. Seabirds are abundant with several species present in the study area. Many species breed in dense colonies along the coasts, seaducks assemble in certain fjords and bays to moult, and in winter millions of seabirds migrate through or winter in the ice-free waters off <st1:place w:st="on">West Greenland</st1:place> . Many of these moulting and wintering seabirds have their breeding grounds outside Greenland – mainly in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Norway</st1:country-region> (<st1:place w:st="on">Svalbard</st1:place> ). See Table 2, p. 63.
Marine mammals are significant components of the ecosystem. Five species of seal, walrus, 13 species of whale, and polar bear occur in the assessment area. The assessment area is particularly important to marine mammals in winter, because vulnerable species such as narwhal, white whale (beluga), bowhead whale, walrus, and polar bear occur in significant numbers. See Table 3, p. 74. The whales are moreover suspected to acquire the bulk of their annual food intake in the assessment area.
Use of natural resources is another important issue in the assessment area. Commercial fisheries focus mainly on the large stocks of deep-sea shrimp and <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut. These two species are extremely important to the <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> economy. About 35% of the total Greenland shrimp catch and about 80% of the <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut catch is taken in the assessment area. Other species utilised on a commercial basis include snow crab and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iceland</st1:place></st1:country-region> scallop.
Local and subsistence fishery occur throughout the coastal part of the region. Capelin, lumpsucker (mainly caught for the roe), Arctic char and several other species are fished for private consumption or sold to local factories or at local open markets.
Hunting of seabirds and marine mammals is also important in the assessment area. This is carried out mainly on a subsistence basis, but hunting products are also sold at local open markets, and processed and marketed in food stores in towns and settlements all over <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> .
Tourism is a relatively new and growing industry in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> . It may be sensitive to oil spills because the main attraction in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> is the unspoiled nature. The most intensive tourist activities in <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> take place within the assessment area, with the town Ilulissat as centre.
Knowledge on background levels of contaminants such as hydrocarbons and heavy metals is important in assessing environmental impacts from petroleum activities. The available knowledge on background levels of hydrocarbons in the assessment area is limited, but the general picture is that levels are low. A significant amount of data regarding other contaminants in the <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> environment is available.
Assessment
Exploration
The environmental impacts of exploration activities will mainly be disturbance from activities associated with noise, and the impacts are expected to be relatively small, local and temporary, because of the intermittent nature of the activities. No serious impacts are expected if adequate mitigative measures are applied, activities in sensitive areas are avoided in the most sensitive periods and no accidents such as oil spills occur. The winter is particularly sensitive to exploration activities due to wintering marine mammals, but these are not expected to take place during this season. Temporary impacts of intensive seismic activity could be displacement of <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut, which again could cause reduced catches in the fisheries near affected areas. Deep-sea shrimp will not be affected by seismic activities. Marine mammals, particularly whales, may also be displaced from feeding grounds and migration routes. However, as seismic surveys are temporary such effects are expected to be of short duration (viz. weeks or a maximum of a few months). There is however a risk of oil spills from blowouts during exploration drilling (see below).
The sound pulse from the seismic array can kill or injure fish egg and larvae within a distance of 5 m. Very intensive seismic surveys coinciding with high concentrations of fish eggs and larvae in the upper part of the water column may impact recruitment to the adult stocks. However, as such high concentrations are not known in West Greenland waters and, moreover, most fish species spawn in a dispersed manner and in late winter or early spring when no seismic surveys takes place, it is concluded that the risk of effects of seismic surveys on fish stocks is negligible.
Development and production
The activities during development, production and transport are on the other hand long lasting and there are several activities which have the potential to cause serious environmental impacts. Careful Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) procedures, and planning and application of Best Available Technique (BAT) and Best Environmental Practice (BEP) can mitigate most of these. Even though discharges and emissions can be limited, knowledge on cumulative and long-term impacts from many of the released substances is still lacking.
<st1:place w:st="on">Greenland emission of greenhouse gases. A single large Norwegian production field emits more than twice the total <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> emission of today.</st1:place>
The fisheries will be affected by development and production mainly by the presence of the safety zone (of typically 500 m) around the offshore facilities.
Placement of structures and the disturbance related to these have the potential to displace marine mammals in particular. Noise from drilling platforms has displaced migration routes of bowhead whales in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alaska</st1:place></st1:State> . Dependent on location in the assessment area, displacement of migrating and staging whales (mainly narwhal, white whale and bowhead whale) walrus and seals (bearded seal) must be expected. This can in certain areas limit the access of populations of these animals to feeding grounds important to survival, and also result in reduced availability of quarry species for local hunters.
Intensive helicopter flying also has the potential to displace seabirds and marine mammals from habitats (e.g. feeding grounds important for winter survival) and traditional hunting grounds for local people.
Development and production activities represent an issue which is difficult to evaluate when the level of activity is unknown and cumulative impacts are involved. Overall significance will depend on the number of activities, how far they are dispersed in the areas in question, and also on their duration.
Oil spills
The potentially most serious environmental impacts are related to large accidental oil spills. These may occur either during drilling (blowouts) or from accidents when storing or transporting oil. Large oil spills are rare events today due to ever-improving technical solutions and HSE-policies. However, the risk cannot be totally eliminated and in a frontier area with the presence of icebergs, the possibility for an accident may be elevated.
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Disko <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType> , the west coast of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Disko</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Island</st1:PlaceType> , and up to 100 km north and south of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Disko</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> area.</st1:PlaceName>
In general, oil spills occurring in the coastal zone are regarded as much more deleterious than oils spills in the open sea, but there is some reservation attached to this statement in an area such as Disko West. This is due to the presence of winter ice which may trap and transport oil over long distances, but which on the other hand also may limit the dispersion compared with the situation in ice-free waters. Knowledge on the behaviour of spilled oil in ice-covered waters is limited.
The coastal zone is sensitive because of the rich biodiversity present, including concentrations of breeding and moulting seabirds and spawning fish stocks (capelin and lumpsucker). But it is also related to the fact that oil may be trapped in bays and fjords where high and toxic concentrations can build up in the water. Moreover, local fishermen and hunters intensively use the coastal zone. Oil may also be buried in sediments, among boulders, in mussel beds and imbedded in crevices in rocks from where oil may seep, and may create low-level chronic pollution which may persist for decades and cause long-term effects on, for example, birds utilising these coasts.
Effects of an oil spill in the open sea are expected to be less severe than in coastal areas. However, there are some important offshore resources in the area which may be severely impacted – for example, the concentrations of wintering king eiders, white whales and walruses on Store Hellefiskebanke. Attention should also be given to potential oil spills in areas with hydrodynamic discontinuities, particularly during the spring bloom. Fronts, upwelling areas and the marginal ice zone are examples of such hydrodynamic discontinuities where high surface concentrations of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and shrimp and fish larvae can be expected. But generally it is concluded that the impact of an oil spill on the eggs and larvae of the commercially important species - <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut and deep-sea shrimp - most likely will be low and without significant effects on the recruitment to adult stocks, because only a small fraction of the population will be impacted.
Bird populations particularly at risk of being impacted by an oil spill in the Disko West area include the breeding colony of thick-billed murres at Ritenbenk, the breeding colonies of Atlantic puffins along the outer coasts, and the moulting and wintering populations of king eiders along the west coast of Disko and on Store Hellefiskebanke.
Marine mammal populations are generally regarded as relatively robust to oil spills, mainly because individuals (except polar bears) are not dependent on an intact fur layer for insulation. However, some of the species in the assessment area are particularly vulnerable, because they are sensitive even to slightly increased mortality: the stocks of narwhal, white whale and walrus are all declining. Polar bears are also sensitive to oil spills. Walrus and bearded seal feeding on benthos may also be exposed to oil through their food, if oil sinks and accumulates on the seafloor. Bowhead whales, which occur in low numbers, belong to a stock which now is slowly recovering from heavy exploitation. This recovery may be halted by even a slight increase in mortality.
There are special problems related to oil spills in ice. Sea-ice cover will in the beginning tend to contain and limit the spread of an oil spill compared with open sea. Oil is contained between the ice floes and in the rough underside of the ice. However, oil caught under the ice may be transported in an almost unweathered state over long ranges and may impact the environment, e.g. seabirds and marine mammals, far from the spill site when the ice melts. Oil may also be caught along ice edges, where primary production is high.
Even though seals may tolerate some oil in their fur, such oiling may impact local hunters, as fouled skins are of no use and are impossible to sell.
Oil spill effects on commercial fisheries are mainly linked to the closure of fishing grounds (e.g. for shrimp and <st1:place w:st="on">Greenland</st1:place> halibut) for longer periods (weeks to months) due to the risks associated with marketing polluted or tainted fish. Effects on subsistence hunting and fishing will include closure of fishing grounds and probably also temporary changes in distribution and habits of quarry species.
Further studies
The assessment has revealed several issues where more knowledge is needed to assess impacts of hydrocarbon activities. These are addressed in a series of studies already initiated or proposed.
In support of this SEIA, the BMP and NERI have initiated a number of background studies in collaboration with the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and others. The studies are being conducted over the period 2005-2008.
Further studies in relation to the future opening of the northwest Baffin Bay are expected to be initiated to strengthen the knowledge base for planning, mitigation and regulation of oil activities in the assessment area and in the entire <st1:place w:st="on">Baffin Bay</st1:place> area. NERI is developing a database with relevant environmental data from these background studies as well as other sources. Data include spatial and temporal distribution of key animal species and fishing areas. The data will be made available on DVDs in a Geographic Information System in ArcGIS format in support of the companies’ own environmental analyses.
Part 1 of the report in pdf-format (4.720 kB)
Part 2 of the report in pdf-format (5.247 kB)
Part 3 of the report in pdf-format (1.984 kB)
