An Earth Day of Seismic Proportion

Photo courtesy of The Office of Senator Cory Booker

On Earth Day, April 22, 2016, when World leaders from 175 countries signed a historic Paris Climate Accord, Clean Ocean Action (COA) executive director Cindy Zipf stood with Senator Cory Booker, Senator Bob Menendez and colleagues, and called for the rejection of several proposed oil and gas seismic surveys in the Mid-Atlantic. The Senators also introduced a bi-partisan bill called the Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection Act.

In March, the Obama administration removed the mid-Atlantic from the offshore leasing program for 2017 to 2022, however the permits for the exploratory seismic blasting were not halted, and continue to be evaluated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Not only would the seismic blasting encourage future oil and gas drilling in the region, but the noise from the seismic air guns is orders of magnitude worse than the harm caused by the Rutgers Geology study last summer off Long Beach Island. Incredibly, if allowed, these studies could maim or kill up to 138,000 mammals and disrupt or harass 13 million mammals. These staggering numbers are unthinkable and will also harm the multi-million dollar fisheries and coastal economies. All efforts must be made to stop this seismic study and lock in protection for our ocean.