EDO has the following recommendations for this Senate Inquiry:
1. Assessment processes for all seismic activities should require an explicit consideration of the impacts on fisheries and the marine environment, beyond only impacts on MNES.
2. Assessment of seismic activities should explicitly consider climate change risks associated with any subsequent utilisation of the fossil fuel resource. This would include consideration of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would likely result from opening up new petroleum and gas resource areas, and risks to fish populations, fisheries and marine environments from impacts such as ocean temperature increases, ocean acidification, sea-level rise that are an inevitable consequence of climate change.
3. Decision making must adequately incorporate the precautionary principle and intergenerational equity and be consistent with ecologically sustainable development.
4. Petroleum and gas activities, including seismic testing, should be excluded from all marine parks.
