Norwegian oil giant Statoil says while it can't guarantee no whales and dolphins will be harmed when it carries out seismic surveying for oil off Northland's west coast, it has not seen any marine mammal deaths in its 40 years of exploration around the globe.
Statoil Vice President Exploration Dr Pal Haremo was reacting to concerns from Otago University associate professor of zoology Liz Slooten that sonar and seismic surveying for oil and gas off Northland's west coast could lead to more whale strandings and leave some species of whales and dolphins effectively deaf and blind.
International oil company Statoil is preparing to carry out testing in 9818.88 square kilometres in the Northland Basin after being granted a permit by the Government, but Dr Slooten said more safeguards needed to be put in place before the company carried out any sonar and seismic testing using air guns.
Dr Haremo said Statoil takes potential impact on marine mammals seriously and the company followed all international and local regulations wherever it operate.
"We are planning to start acquisition of seismic data in our Northland permit in December 2014. We are conducting a Marine Mammal Impact Assessment (MMIA) covering the licence area. A part of this study is to identify and mitigate risks before we start acquisition. The MMIA will be delivered to the authorities for approval prior to any seismic activity in our permit area," he said.