By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Shell Oil Co. is planning a series of experimental flights this fall to test and capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles to spot marine mammals in the Beaufort Sea.

The spy-type aircraft has a 10-foot wingspan, and will be launched from ships to look for inflated plastic boats in the Beaufort Sea. Shell hopes the efforts will help crews avoid marine mammals while exploring for oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

Some 10 research flights are scheduled from Aug. 25 through Sept. 23, and will be conducted in conjunction with manned DeHavilland Twin Otter aircraft with trained marine mammal observers.

The Shell flights will be conducted with the cooperation of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory and the Minerals Management Service.

The $100,000 aircraft will be controlled by Evergreen International personnel on board the Norseman II, a dedicated research vessel that will be stationed offshore from Prudhoe Bay.

The UAV team for Shell consists of Jerod Kendrick, project lead; Paul R Smith, Alaska operations focal point; Michael Macrander, global discipline lead; Rocky Lee, Alaska aviation manager; and Bill Koski, Alaska marine mammal biologist.

According to Shell documents, the flights will target 12 inflatable kayaks, which will simulate whales. The kayaks will be black, grey and white in color. They will be anchored to the ocean floor and equipped with Global Positioning System transmitters. The kayaks will be deployed along a subset of sections from the shoreline 12 miles out into the Beaufort Sea.

Two flights are planned, one for the UAVs alone and the other to compare the two types of survey information from different aerial platforms.

Information from these flights will be used to verify whether unmanned surveys are to be an accepted method of meeting and monitoring mitigation requirements issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The object of the flights over the North Slope is to compare the UAV flight observations of the simulated whales to those spotted by observers in the Twin Otter aircraft.

The proposed tests will be conducted in Harrison Bay, west of an area near Cross Island where Inupiat subsistence whalers traditionally hunt in the fall. Should whaling discontinue early, Shell plans to move the research flights to Camden Bay in the area of the Sivulliq prospect, which is farther east of Harrison Bay.

Shell also planned surveys of the near shore areas of the Chukchi Sea. The National Marine Fisheries Service plans bowhead whale migration and feeding surveys called for MMS. Fish and Wildlife also plans surveys for polar bears along the Chukchi and Beaufort seas coastlines.

Shell's plans to conduct the research flights were revealed during a June 26 workshop in Anchorage. An additional unmanned aircraft systems workshop is set for on Aug. 26-27, co-hosted by NOAA's National Weather Service's Alaska region and Shell Oil is planned in Anchorage at the Downtown Marriott Hotel.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.