BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE
The company behind seismic testing off Newcastle's coastline is defending the operation in the face of widespread community opposition.
It comes after a protest in Carrington greeted the start of the testing on Saturday, with Former Greens Leader Bob Brown addressing the crowd, describing the partnership between Asset Energy and the federal government as 'corporate exploitation.'
However, Asset Director, Tobias Foster, said the effect of the testing upon marine life has been blown out of proportion.
"The seismic survey is utilising a very small acoustic energy blast, certainly not blasting the water as some antagonists have claimed.
"We don't expect any sort of impact to the degree that the Greens and others have suggested."
NSW Greens MP Justin Field has spoken on behalf of the party, condemning the underwater air-gun blasts which he says will hurt 22 species of threatened marine life and consequently impact commercial fishers and Port Stephens whale watching businesses.
The 4578 square kilometres off Newcastle's coastline which is subject to the PEP11 Exploration Title is being touted as "highly prospective" for the discovery of significant quantities of natural gas, with Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan in support, despite the disapproval of his NSW counterpart, Don Harwin.
A similar survey was conducted in the same location off our coastline in 2010, prior to the drilling of the first ever exploration well 55 kilometres due-east of Newcastle.
Tobias Foster said that round of testing yeilded no recorded marine-life impact, stating the company undertakes it operations transparently.
"We undertook a community consultative process during that exercise and continue to engage all stakeholders and continue to do so for this process," he said.
"We look forward to continuing that dialogue and explaining how our exploration efforts are within reasonable environmental guidelines and acceptable under the Offshore Petroleum Greenhouse Gas Storage Act."
Mr Foster reiterated the 'minor' nature of the testing, saying it's being confined to a two-dimensional survey.
"Three dimensional is great for much larger, broader scale interpretations of the Earth's geology," he said.
"In this situation we're refining it to a very small location and performing what's called a high-resolution survey so we're actually getting information from the geology only a few hundred metres to possibly a kilometre below the seabed. "
Asset Energy is a subsidiary of Perth-based company, Advent Energy.
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| Not happy: Protestors gather as the PMG Pride sets out to conduct seismic testing. Image: The Herald. |
