The U.S.
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has just approved the use of seismic
airguns to explore the seabed from Cape May to Cape Canaveral for oil and gas. (Map below)
Seismic airguns are used to find oil and gas deep underneath the ocean
floor. Airguns are so intensely loud that they disturb, injure or kill marine
life, harm commercial fisheries, and disrupt coastal economies. These
dynamite-like blasts—which are repeated every ten seconds, 24 hours a day, for
days and weeks at a time—are 100,000 times more intense than a jet engine. According
the most recent government estimates, the seismic airgun testing currently
being proposed in the Atlantic will injure 138,500 whales, sea turtles and
dolphins…and disturb millions more.
Seismic airguns are
towed behind ships and shoot loud blasts of compressed air through the water
and miles into the seabed, which reflect back information about buried oil and
gas deposits. These blasts harm marine mammals, sea turtles, fish and other
wildlife.
Impacts include temporary and permanent
hearing loss, abandonment of habitat, disruption of mating and feeding, beach
strandings and death. For whales and dolphins, which rely on their hearing to
find food, communicate, and reproduce, being able to hear is a life or death
matter. Of particular concern is the critically endangered Right Whale and the
endangered loggerhead turtle. Airgun blasts also kill fish eggs and larvae and
scare away fish from important habitats. Following seismic surveys, catch rates
of cod and haddock typically decline by 40 to 80 percent for thousands of
miles.
In addition to being devastating for marine life, seismic
airguns are the first step toward dangerous offshore drilling with associated
habitat destruction, oil spills and contribution to climate change and ocean
acidification.
According to Tommy Beaudreau, director of the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management, (BOEM) estimates from the 70s and 80s put the amount around
a modest 3.3 billion barrels of oil. Currently the Gulf of Mexico produces
about 1,250,000 barrels of oil a day (according
to the U.S. Energy Information Administration). At this rate the proven
reserves off the Atlantic would be the equivalent of just over seven years’ of
Gulf oil. The area under consideration stretches
all the way from Delaware to Florida and is twice the size of California.
Thus far, the oil industry has submitted nine applications from
oil and gas companies and seismic contractors, according to Beaudreau.
“Those applications propose literally hundreds of thousands of
miles of seismic blasting,” writes Michael
Jasny, Senior Policy Analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “And no
doubt there are others waiting in the wings. Because of the enormous distances
sound can travel in the ocean, the dangerous noise from this activity cannot
remotely be confined to the waters off individual states that encourage it.
Some impacts — particularly on the great baleen whales — would extend many
hundreds of miles, affecting states as far north as New England. Fish and
fisheries could be affected for tens of miles around every seismic ship.”
Again - The BOEM’s own Environmental
Impact Statement estimates that about 138,000 marine
animals could be injured in some way, while approximately 13.6 million more could
have their migration, feeding, or other behavioral patterns disrupted by the
seismic surveys.
Seismic surveying off the southwest
coast of Africa in recent years has been linked to the disruption of migrating
tuna and consequently a dramatic decline in catches off the coast of Namibia. Many
species fished in the mid-and south Atlantic (including wahoo, swordfish, and
billfishes) embark on long-distance migrations. This means that any impacts of
air-gun surveys are likely to spread beyond the survey area itself. BOEM’s
report offers no measures to specifically deal with the impact on fish species.
Fish eggs and larvae can be killed by intense sound, and the growth of young
scallops is also affected.
Jacqueline Savitz, vice
president for U.S. Oceans at Oceana: “If seismic airguns are allowed in the
Atlantic, it will jeopardize wildlife as well as commercial and recreational
fisheries, tourism and coastal recreation—putting more than 730,000 jobs in the
blast zone at risk."
The Exxon Valdez spill, at nearly 11 million
gallons, was the largest in U.S. history until 2010′s Deepwater Horizon
disaster dwarfed it, spewing over 200 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico.
If the proposed seismic tests find significant oil reserves off the Atlantic
coast, the region will be subject to similar risks.
Some requested
evidence beyond a “reasonable assumption of harm.” There is no way to establish
proof before the fact for that's akin to asking for proof that someone will be
hurt by an anvil falling on his/her head: logic and prevailing science suggest
that cranial damage will ensue and we need not pummel people with anvils on a
regular basis to cement our assumptions. The BOEM’s own scientific studies and
EIS, along with those of hundreds of environmental institutes and independent
bodies, support the findings of massive damage to marine life and the resultant
impact upon coastal communities.
Throughout the
proposed “blast site” (image below) cities and citizens raised their
voices in protest - joining the many others who are striving to prevent catastrophic harm to
marine creature, fisheries, and the coast itself.
Given President Obama's National Oceans Month proclamation, the irony is bitter:
Please consider joining Oceana's protest:
Alex Kearns
Chair
St. Marys EarthKeepers
