Marine Pollution from Underwater Seismic Surveys and International Law
Gökhan GüneysuOceans are perceived by humans to be silent, as publicly reiterated by the esteemed Jacques Cousteau. However, this cannot be farther from the truth since ambient noise in an underwater environment is a relatively high one, even if humans fail to hear it. The part of anthropogenic noise in this has been increasing steadily for at least a century and newly developed technologies contribute to this noise immensely. One of these new technologies is the air gun - used in seismic surveys since the 1960’s. These guns are used to gather information by emitting sound waves at short intervals of every ten seconds. Seismic surveys have been deemed to be harmless activities by the international courts and arbitration tribunals in their judgments and awards, especially in regards to disputes of maritime delimitation. In cases where states parties to such a dispute refrain from drilling activities, among others, which may potentially jeopardize the marine environment permanently, and execute seismic surveys solely, they will not be held internationally responsible for the activities of the latter kind. However, recent studies have indisputably proven that this is a misrepresentation of the environmental effects of the seismic surveys. This paper aims to throw light upon the real nature of these surveys with a view to establishing whether these activities are transgressions of international law. This is to be endeavored within the purview of two different sources of international law - global rules and regional legal rules. It is the understanding of the author that the international conventions with a global relevance form the framework for the regional and domestic rules, the latter of which is not included in this paper. This inquiry, in its conclusion, tries to come up with suggestions of
Gökhan a practical nature to mitigate underwater noise pollution. The implementation of these measures is significant for those states parties to actual maritime delimitation disputes, since they will augment the legitimacy of the activities carried out by them.
Sualtında İcra Edilen Sismik Araştırmalardan Kaynaklanan Kirlilik ve Uluslararası Hukuk
Gökhan Güneysuİnsanoğlu denizleri sessiz ortamlar olarak algılayagelmiştir. Hâlbuki sualtında sesli ve canlı bir ortam mevcuttur. Bu zenginliği bozan ve rahatsız edecek seviyede gürültü yaratan bir takım çalışmalar sürdürülmektedir. Bunların en önemlilerinden biri de sismik araştırmalardır. Yenilenen teknoloji ile sismik araştırmalarda hava tabancaları kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. Böylelikle her 10 saniyede denize yüksek ses dalgaları yayılabilmekte ve bu dalgalar uzak mesafelere ulaşmaktadır. Uluslararası Hukuk’ta önemli konu başlıklarından biri deniz alanlarının sınırlandırılması meselesidir. Bu meselede verilmiş mahkeme ve tahkim kararları vardır. Oluşmakta olan bu içtihatta sismik araştırmalar izin verilen, sorumluluk doğurmayacak faaliyetler olarak görülmektedirler. Bu yaklaşıma göre sismik araştırmalar, sondaj gibi faaliyetlerden farklı olarak sınırlandırılacak deniz çevresine kalıcı zarar vermemektedir. Bu çalışmanın konusu bu algının bilimsel verilerle olan uyumsuzluğuna işaret etmektir. Sonrasında, gürültünün bir kirlenme çeşidi olduğunun tespiti ve gürültüye karşı oluşturulan hukuki yapı incelenecektir. Bu incelemede odak olarak Uluslararası Hukuk seçilmiştir. Burada ikili bir ayrıma gidilerek öncelikle Birleşmiş Milletler Deniz Hukuku ve Biyolojik Çeşitlilik Sözleşmeleri gibi evrensel uygulama bulması gereken hukuki metinler ele alınacaktır. Bunlar, daha sonra kabul edilen bölgesel uluslararası hukuk metinleri için çerçeve görevini üstlenmektedir. Çalışma kapsamına ulusal mevzuat dâhil edilmemiştir. Çalışma, sonuç bölümünde gürültü kirliliğini azaltmaya dönük tatbiki tavsiyelere yer verecektir. Bunlara uyulması, deniz sınırlandırılması uyuşmazlıklarının tarafı devletlerin eylemlerinin meşruiyeti açısından önemlidir.
Oceans were never as silent as Jacques Cousteau claimed in his book. As a matter of fact, ambient ocean noise is as high as 100 (dB), which is seeing an alarming increase due to the anthropogenic sources of underwater noise. Among these anthropogenic noises, those created by seismic surveys occupy a prominent place. In seismic surveys, air guns are employed. These enable surveyors to send sound waves in extremely high values in very short intervals of 10 seconds. It is well reported now that the introduction of such high-volume sound waves into the marine environment causes (usually fatal) injuries and various behavioral disturbances on marine mammals and other marine organisms, while they are not perceivable by the human ear. Disturbances, for example cause mammals and fish to miss mating dates as well as places and indirectly cause a significant decrease in catch rates, since these living organisms adopt a series of behaviors of escape-first mentality changing the way they normally would behave and move. Since sound travels 4 times faster underwater, the adverse impacts of seismic surveys are very difficult to geographically contain, thus transboundary harms to marine environment are very likely to occur.
There is a relatively wide jurisprudence on maritime delimitation disputes. International Law pertaining to these disputes has been interpreted in such a manner by the competent international courts and arbitration tribunals that seismic surveys are usually presented as just too harmless to cause the international legal responsibility of the states concerned. According to this reasoning, permanent damage to the natural resources available in the maritime area to be delimited, as the law so requires, should be avoided. In this jurisprıdence, seismic surveys are referred to as utterly legitimate courses of action on behalf of the states parties to the dispute. However, seismic surveys are far from being harm-free in terms of damage inflicted upon the marine environment. Moreover, these surveys may, and in all likelihood will, cause violations of international rules and regulations, which can eventually end up being valid grounds for the international responsibility of the states involved.
International Law offers many legal texts with global or regional effects. It is one of the main aims of this paper to briefly analyze these conventions and agreements. Those with a global legal reach such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) happen to provide a solid legal framework, building up globally applicable legal obligations to protect and to preserve marine environments, whereas regional agreements like ASCOBANS and ACCOBAMS tend to come up with more concrete measures, though not always included in the letter of the relevant body of international law, to reach this common objective. The most important contribution of these regional conventions is the fact that they are keenly observed by the States Parties to them, which enjoy geographical proximity and a similar level of dedication to the idea of environmental protection. The regulations of UNCLOS and CBD concerning the protection of marine environment are arguably to be accepted as customary international law, which expands the remit of the mentioned conventions.
Underwater noise is acoustic energy released onto marine environment. This characteristic allows one to place this nauseating occurrence into the category of pollution as described by the 1st Article of the UNCLOS. Therefore, the general obligations foreseen by the same Convention are to be applied in a noise-related setting. In order to observe this and other legal obligations, states should be keen on the idea of employing mitigating measures such as marine mammal observers, soft starts, exclusion zones and the sharing of scientific information as to the negative impacts of seismic activities. It is of vital importance that in all of the seismic-survey-related processes precautionary principles should advise the actors, with a view to preserving and protecting the marine environment and its biological diversity. Only in this fashion, the two distinct objectives of sustainable exploitation of natural resources and of concomitant protection of marine environment may be realized.
