Since the early 1990s, Continental Shelf Associates has been providing marine environmental services through CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA) to support nearshore and offshore development in Trinidad and Tobago’s oil and gas industry. CSA has served this industry during the pre-regulatory and regulatory environmental permitting regimes, gaining 25 years of experience in the sector.

For many years, CSA provided environmental services to oil and gas operators when legal frameworks for managing environmental impacts were not fully developed. These studies were conducted to fulfil the corporate requirements of oil and gas operators. Since 2001, a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) has become a regulatory pre-requisite to conduct EMA-designated activities, including upstream and downstream oil and gas activities. Depending on the nature and scale of the activity, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) could be required to support the CEC application and decision.

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The nearshore hardbottom habitat near Sebastian Inlet supports a diversity of green, red, and brown algae species as well as large wormrock formations. This photo was taken in the shallow waters near the McLarty Treasure Museum Beach. Photo CSA Ocean Sciences Inc.

A beach nourishment project that will include dredging at the Sebastian Inlet in Indian River County Florida is planned to begin in January 2019. CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA) has been conducting biological monitoring of the nearshore hardbottom community along the planned fill area for over a decade. Most recently, we performed a pre-construction biological monitoring survey in the summer of 2018 to assess the current conditions and allow comparison to post-construction conditions after the beach nourishment activities are completed in 2019. CSA will continue their long-term monitoring of the nearshore hardbottom community for the next 5 years to ensure that any impacts to the natural resources from the dredging project are quantified.

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