30 members of Congress wrote a letter to President Obama opposing the use of seismic airgun testing for oil exploration. The exploration plans would injury as many as 138,500 marine mammals and disrupt feeding, calving, breeding, and other vital activities more than 13.5 million times over the next serveral years.
The proposal, the Five YearOuter Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, would affect the Atlanic Ocean coast from Maine to Florida.
In their letter to President Obama, Congress states;
"Additionally, the type of seismic airgun testing used to search for oil and gas is incredibly harmful and could injure or kill thousands of marine mammals and fish, including endangered species. Seismic airguns fire intense blasts of compressed air - almost as loud as explosives - every 10-12 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks and months on end. These loud airgun blasts can be heard for many hundreds of miles in the ocean and, as a result, can drive whales to abandon their habitats, go silent, and cease foraging over vast areas. At shorter distances, it can cause permanent hearing loss, injury, and even death for whales, dolphins and fish."
See the full letter here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mjasny/House%20Letter%20to%20President%20Obama%20-%20Atlantic%20Seismic%20Testing.pdf
Thank New Jersey Representative Pallone and Senator Lautenberg for leading the charge.
30 members of Congress wrote a letter to President Obama opposing the use of seismic airgun testing for oil exploration. The exploration plans would injury as many as 138,500 marine mammals and disrupt feeding, calving, breeding, and other vital activities more than 13.5 million times over the next serveral years.
The proposal, the Five YearOuter Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, would affect the Atlanic Ocean coast from Maine to Florida.
In their letter to President Obama, Congress states;
"Additionally, the type of seismic airgun testing used to search for oil and gas is incredibly harmful and could injure or kill thousands of marine mammals and fish, including endangered species. Seismic airguns fire intense blasts of compressed air - almost as loud as explosives - every 10-12 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks and months on end. These loud airgun blasts can be heard for many hundreds of miles in the ocean and, as a result, can drive whales to abandon their habitats, go silent, and cease foraging over vast areas. At shorter distances, it can cause permanent hearing loss, injury, and even death for whales, dolphins and fish."
See the full letter here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mjasny/House%20Letter%20to%20President%20Obama%20-%20Atlantic%20Seismic%20Testing.pdf
Thank New Jersey Representative Pallone and Senator Lautenberg for leading the charge.
