Environmental Defenders Office has made a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the impact of seismic testing on fisheries and the marine environment.

Inquiry into impacts of seismic testing on fisheries and the marine environment: EDO submissionDownload

EDO provides the following recommendations to the 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 matters of national environmental significance (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.