Scubaism

Unusually high noise levels at an oil and gas construction site off the east coast of Russia is frightening endangered whales out of their feeding grounds, environment groups are claiming.

WWF and Sakhalin Environment Watch, a Russian NGO, say noise levels over the weekend of 30 June and 1 July were unusually high. They say they did not see any whales over the weekend and are concerned the noise has frightened them away. Both groups have been monitoring the whales since construction in Sakhalin began three years ago.

The waters around Sakhalin island are also the only known feeding ground for the western grey whales, which live in the Pacific. The whales – of which there are only about 100 remaining – come to Sakhalin to feed with their young after the ice has retreated in the summer.

Sakhalin Energy, a company partly owned by oil giant Shell, is in the final stages of installing two platforms 12 kilometres offshore to extract oil and gas from the seabed. The project, combined with its planned 800 kilometres of pipeline, is the world’s largest oil and gas extraction project. The company denies exceeding noise limits.