Oppose Seismic Surveys in the Atlantic
The Department of Interior is deciding whether to conduct seismic surveys in the Atlantic ocean from New Jersey to Florida to assess oil and gas resources. The proposed surveys would employ loud and continuous sound blasts that would cause major impacts to marine wildlife and the ecosystem.
Please ask the Secretary of the Interior to cancel seismic exploration off the Atlantic coast.
Seismic surveys would produce devastating impacts on marine mammals, sea turtles, fishes, and other marine life. The blasts from seismic airguns have been shown to interfere with the mating, feeding, communication, and migration activities of numerous species, including the endangered Right Whale (photo).
Furthermore, offshore drilling is inherently polluting and dangerous, and it will not solve our nation's energy needs. According to the Department of Energy, fully developing all of our recoverable offshore oil reserves would lower pump prices by only 3 cents. Such a tradeoff is not worth the risk to our coastal economies, including tourism, recreation, and commerical fishing, which generate billions of dollars in annual revenue on the Atlantic coast.
Please sign the petition to ask the Department to cancel plans for seismic exploration off the Atlantic coast.
I request that you cancel plans to conduct seismic surveys off the Mid- and South Atlantic coasts. Seismic airgun activity for oil and gas exploration has a huge environmental footprint and would produce significant impacts on marine mammals, sea turtles, fishes, and other marine life. According to the Department's own estimates, seismic exploration over the next eight years would injure up to 138,500 marine mammals and disrupt marine mammal feeding, calving, breeding, and other vital activities more than 13.5 million times. Airgun noise also affects fish behavior and fisheries on a broad scale, displacing commercial species of fish over thousands of square kilometers. The Department must protect marine resources in the Atlantic - and the coastal communities that depend on them - by canceling plans to conduct seismic surveys. Thank you.