- GEMSA Petroleum Co. was preparing for piling operations to drive conductor pipe for drilling a new offshore well, Gemsa Drilling Rig SE-15, in the eastern side of Gulf of Suez (7.5 Km from Gamasa shore & about 20 Km from El Gouna City).
- As part of this project, Environics was commissioned to monitor marine mammals from the Rig before and during the piling activities and provide mitigation impacts on marine mammals, if present, by requesting shutdown of the noise sources in accordance with the Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP).
- The main objectives of Marine Mammals Observation were to:
- Spot sensitive marine mammals species before and during the piling operations.
- Mitigate impacts on marine mammals by monitoring the presence of these species from the rig and requesting shut-down of the hammer if necessary when marine mammals were seen within specified safety zones representing distances close enough to potentially cause physical injury.
- The observation was performed by one MMO and was only during the daylight. It was based on a full view of the exclusion zone from helideck on the rig (121 FT above the sea level) to provide the largest visual scale.
- Initial visual scanning with the naked eye was the main tool for observation with occasional scans by using binoculars.
- Four forms have been filled as follows:
- 1) Cover page – contains general information about the survey
- 2) Operations – contains details of the use of the source of noise
- 3) Effort – contains details of watches for marine mammals
- 4) Sightings – contains details of sightings detections
- Monitoring results, conclusion & recommendations were provided in the observation report.
