Aniva Bay Impacts

Aniva Bay is an important area for commercial fishing as well as a favourite recreational place for local communities in the Korsakov District. Sakhalin Energy is involved in regular engagement with the Korsakov community and Sakhalin fisherman to listen to their concerns and develop appropriate environmental conservation measures.

	Dredging operations were required in Aniva Bay to provide foundations for a jetty and to have enough water depth to allow LNG vessels to operate safely. The dredging took place between 2003 and 2005 affecting around 0.02% of the Bay water area. Dredging spoil was taken to an approved disposal site some 24km offshore and distributed evenly within the radius of a 440m circular area at a depth of 65m – in line with international best practice. The dredging procedure was completed successfully ahead of schedule.
	Monitoring studies have shown that impact from the dredging operation was minimal, localised and short–term with no permanent effect on fishing in Aniva Bay or elsewhere. A study carried out by Regional Centre of Coastal Fishing and Fish Finding, in 2006, found that no activity by Sakhalin Energy had interfered in the fishing industry’s local or regional production, nor did Sakhalin Energy have any influence in the stability of the fishing industry’s performance.
	Leading Russian academics independently corroborated Sakhalin Energy’s monitoring studies agreeing that the dredging of seabed material did not lead to any irreversible, negative consequences for Aniva Bay, that the ecosystem and bioresources within the ecology of the Bay had not been changed and that fish stocks had not been harmed from this operation.
	A full environmental monitoring programme in the affected areas was carried out by Sakhniro (Sakhalin Fishery and Oceanography Scientific Research Institute) and results were provided to Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Ecological Agency) including other governmental agencies. The programme included monitoring of the sea water quality and the biota. The effects are less than the predicted impacts outlined in the impact assessment.
	More evidence of this assessment is that the 2007 fishing season reached an all-time high. The final 2007 catch was reported to be 158,000 tonnes, of which the pink salmon catch was 144,881 tonnes which is a new high for Sakhalin. The previous record was set in 2005, when the pink salmon harvest on Sakhalin was recorded at just over 134,000 tonnes.