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Drilling For Gas in Mediterranean Sea Will Threaten Valuable Marine Life Says WWF
Drilling For Gas in Mediterranean Sea Will Threaten Valuable Marine Life Says WWF
“The deep-sea floor in the Levant is teeming with life of a very special and unique kind.
WWF strongly condemns blind drilling on biodiversity hotspots that could cause
irreversible damage,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“These unique marine ecosystems are particularly fragile, and vulnerable to external
interference – they have evolved in a highly stable, low-energy environment which has
led to the creation of exceptionally rare ecosystems.”
The recently discovered Leviathan gas field, 135 km off the coast of Israel, is the
world’s biggest deepwater gas find in a decade – with an estimated volume of 16 trillion
cubic feet of gas – while the West Nile Delta gas field, discovered earlier this year, lies in
Egyptian waters, 80 km northwest of Alexandria.
But on these two areas sits a unique and delicate marine ecosystem, whose rich
biological communities host rare species of deep-sea sponges, worms, molluscs and
cold water corals – some of which are thousands of years old.
The Nile Delta area hosts a unique biological community which relies on gases seeping
from the sea bed, rather than on sunlight like most life on Earth – and has been
shortlisted for designation as a Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance
(SPAMI).
Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) must be urgently carried out – and acted
upon. To avoid irreversible damage, industrial development and drilling should be ruled
out on deep-sea areas deemed to harbour the most valuable biological communities
and unique species.
“Careful and comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessments should be carried out
specifically to account for the potential effects of drilling on the integrity, structure and
functioning of these deep-sea ecosystems – before any gas explorers even set foot in
this part of the Mediterranean,” said Tudela.
“Once a deep-sea community has been drilled through, it can take a millennium or more
before the unique micro-ecosystem grows again – so the most fragile and valuable
species and under-sea areas must be left untouched by gas development.”
This Offshore Protocol states that any potential deep-sea exploitation activities –
including oil or gas exploration and development drilling – must be subject to
authorisation based on a thorough EIA. Controls are even higher for specially protected
areas, like the zone housing these new gas fields.
Note to editor:
For a summary of the 2005 report by WWF and IUCN ‘The Mediterranean deep sea:
highly valuable ecosystems in need of protection’, see:
http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/turkey/news/?17811/The-Mediterranean-
deep-sea-ecosystems-summary-in-English