China’s Deepwater Gas Push Collides With Sperm Whale Conservation

China’s environment ministry has accepted for review an environmental-impact assessment (EIA) for a major deepwater natural-gas project in the South China Sea, but whale experts and conservation advocates say the document fails to assess risks to sperm whales—a nationally protected species that uses nearby waters as a nursery area. The review covers the Baodao 21-1 gas-field cluster, led by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) Hainan branch, according to Caixin.

A Caixin review found no reference to sperm whales anywhere in the report, despite the project area overlapping with confirmed whale habitat. The case crystallizes a widening tension between China’s energy-security ambitions and its marine-conservation obligations—one that researchers say is playing out across an increasingly crowded stretch of ocean.

The Project

The Baodao 21-1 field cluster sits on the northern fault-step zone of the Baodao Sag in the Qiongdongnan Basin, about 115 kilometers off Wanning City on the southeastern coast of Hainan Island, in water ranging from roughly 660 to 1,570 meters deep. It is China’s first large deepwater-and-deep-stratum—or “deep-deep”—gas field, with proven reserves exceeding 50 billion cubic meters (Bcm).

According to a CNOOC press release, the discovery well tested at an average of 587,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day, and government bodies certified proven in-place volumes of natural gas and condensate oil at more than 50 Bcm and 3 million cubic meters respectively. CNOOC describes the field as laying “a solid foundation for the construction of a gas production base of trillion cubic meters resources in the South China Sea.”

The industrial-geoscience publication GeoExPro notes that while the Baodao 21-1 discovery is not new—it already featured in CNOOC’s 2021 annual report—its reserves were only formally confirmed in late 2022. Planned facilities include a central processing platform, an 18-megawatt power platform, three subsea production systems and 22 development wells.

The Omission

The crux of the dispute is what the EIA report does not say. Sperm whales are a Class-I nationally protected wild animal in China and are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The Qiongdongnan Basin is a confirmed habitat for the species, which uses nearby waters as a breeding and nursery area.

Field surveys since 2019 have recorded multiple groups, including nursery groups with juveniles, indicating a stable resident population. The closest recorded sperm whale sighting is less than 30 nautical miles from the gas field—well within the whales’ normal activity range. Under Chinese environmental law, developers are required to assess impacts on protected species; critics say this assessment instead identifies fish spawning grounds as the main ecological-protection target while leaving cetaceans out entirely.

Experts warn that increased ship traffic, drilling, piling and seismic airgun activity could expose whales to collision risks and harmful underwater noise, which may disrupt behavior, damage hearing, or cause strandings.

The Science Behind the Concern

The scientific case for protection has sharpened considerably over the past seven years. A research team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering conducted eight deep-dive and offshore cetacean survey cruises between 2019 and 2025, logging 13 sperm whale sightings and more than 1,200 minutes of acoustic data.

As ScienceNet, the outlet of China Science Daily, reported, the team’s seven-year study—published online in June 2026 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America—analyzed 2,163 sperm whale clicks to estimate body lengths averaging 8.84 meters, with 90% of individuals under 10 meters. That profile indicates the South China Sea population is dominated by smaller females and juveniles.

“Certain South China Sea waters are indeed a sperm whale breeding ground and nursery,” said Li Songhai, the team lead and a researcher at the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, according to ScienceNet. He added that the abundance of females and juveniles, combined with repeated observations of nursery groups, means the region meets the IUCN criteria for an Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA).

The team also found that the whales’ social “codas”—rhythmic click sequences used for communication—belong to the Pacific “4++” vocal clan, a group spanning from the Galápagos and Peru to Tonga and Papua New Guinea. The finding suggests the South China Sea population is part of a single culture spanning the Pacific.

A Pattern of Incomplete Review

The Baodao 21-1 case is not isolated. Environmental advocates point to a recurring pattern in which large offshore and coastal projects advance with incomplete assessments of marine-mammal impacts.

In an August 2026 approval for the Weizhou 12-1 subsea gas pipeline in the Beibu Gulf, the environment ministry took a notably different approach, requiring that construction scheduling avoid the Bryde’s whale main activity period from January to April, with stop-work rules if Bryde’s whales or Chinese white dolphins are sighted and emergency rescue measures if animals are injured.

Earlier, in 2025, a reef-blasting operation for a berth project at Quanzhou’s Weitou Bay was halted after conservation groups warned it would destroy habitat for a resident group of about 20 Chinese white dolphins—another Class-I protected species, according to Caixin.

Regional and Cumulative Risks

Beyond the single-project question, researchers are pressing for a broader reckoning. Waters around the Xisha and Zhongsha islands, including the Qiongdongnan Basin, meet IUCN criteria for an IMMA, with at least 17 cetacean species recorded. Experts recommend a regional planning-level assessment, because oil-and-gas expansion alongside other offshore development could have cumulative effects—with sperm whales as the flagship conservation target.

That framing reflects a shift in how marine scientists think about industrial impacts: not as isolated project-by-project footprints, but as additive pressures on a shared, increasingly industrialized seascape.

Recommendations and What’s Next

Whale specialists and advocates are urging CNOOC and regulators to supplement the EIA with dedicated cetacean surveys and assessments, to explicitly designate sperm whales as sensitive targets using internationally recognized methods, and to adopt mitigation measures such as soft-start procedures for noisy equipment, real-time acoustic monitoring, speed limits, and avoiding construction during peak breeding seasons.

Notably, CNOOC and China National Petroleum Corp. have already used passive acoustic monitoring and soft-start airgun procedures in overseas operations—practices that could be applied domestically.

What happens next depends on the environment ministry’s review of the Baodao 21-1 report. For conservationists, the case is a test of whether China’s environmental-review system can keep pace with the country’s push into deeper waters. For energy planners, it raises a practical question: whether the pursuit of domestic gas—a cornerstone of Beijing’s energy-security strategy—can proceed without unacceptable costs to the marine life sharing those same waters.

The answer, researchers argue, will depend less on science, which is increasingly clear, than on whether that science is allowed into the review process at all.