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Association News
IAGC’s Dr. Gisiner Advances
Productive Relationships Among
Ocean Stakeholders at 22nd Biennial

Marine Mammalogy Conference
The 22nd Biennial Society
for Marine Mammalogy
Conference on the Biology of The IAGC’s Dr. Bob Gisiner was a presenter at a workshop
Marine Mammals was held associated with the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s 22nd Biennial
in October in Halifax,
Nova Scotia Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada on 21 to 28 October. Dr. Gisiner provided a workshop
presentation and a poster presentation at the main conference.
His poster, Factors Affecting Anthropogenic Sound in the Marine
Environment, focused attention on a broader appreciation of all
sources of anthropogenic sound in the ocean and the trends of
use in those sound sources. He emphasized the differences in the
acoustic characteristics, operating properties, and the different
biological considerations that need to be taken into consideration
when assessing the potential effects of sonars, ship noise, seismic
sources and other human made sound sources. His poster also aimed
to dispel misinformation and common myths about anthropogenic
sound in general and about seismic surveys in particular, which are
commonly found in political advocacy websites on the Internet.

Dr. Gisiner’s post-conference workshop, “Assessing the Responses
of Marine Mammals to Anthropogenic Acoustic Disturbance,”
sought to guide the marine mammal scientific community toward
positions that facilitate more productive relationships between the
G&G industry, regulators and environmentalists. He specifically
addressed the relationship between best available science
(BAS) as a benchmark for environmental risk assessments and
the application of precautionary measures to address scientific
uncertainty. His presentations highlighted how precaution needs
to be handled in complex risk models to prevent unrealistic
results arising from interactions between multiple precautionary
assumptions across multiple variables within a model.

Outreach and education activities like these are important for
our industry when dealing with sound and its potential effects
on marine mammals by establishing IAGC and its members as
honest and authoritative voices on the factual scientific basis for
concerns about environmental effects from industry activities.
The IAGC and Dr. Gisiner continue to work in developing and
encouraging application of best available science to guide
regulatory decision-making regarding the geophysical industry.

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