Feds Propose Oil & Gas Exploration Off U.S. East Coast
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| Photo: Members of the Surfrider Foundation Protest Seismic Air Gun Testing at the 2013 Cocoa Beach Christmas Parade. Brevard Times / File |
“By failing to consider relevant science, the Obama administration’s
decision could be a death sentence for many marine mammals, needlessly
turning the Atlantic Ocean into a blast zone,” said 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. In
its rush to finalize this proposal, the Obama administration is failing
to consider the cumulative impacts that these repeated dynamite-like
blasts will have on vital behaviors like mating, feeding, breathing,
communicating and navigating.
Today’s decision comes one week after more than 100 scientists called on President Obama
and his administration to wait on new acoustic guidelines for marine
mammals, which are currently in development by the National Marine
Fisheries Service.
“With offshore drilling in the Atlantic more than four years away,
there is absolutely no justification for failing to include the best
available science in this decision,” said Savitz. “Seismic airguns
create one of the loudest manmade sounds in the ocean, and we should be
doing everything we can to protect marine life from their loud blasts.
These devices are loud enough to kill small animals like fish eggs and
larvae at close ranges and can disrupt the behavior of large animals
like whales and dolphins from up to 100 miles away. It’s as if the Obama
administration has learned nothing from the destruction that similar
testing has caused off the coasts of Namibia, Australia and Madagascar.”
Off the Florida coast, DOI estimates that 40-50 percent of the sampling
will occur at existing borrow sites such as Canaveral Shoals and
Jacksonville.
Beyond the environmental concerns, the proposal requires oil and gas explorers to address conflicts of their operations with NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD). NASA has designated downrange danger zones and has identified patterns for recent debris cones from rocket tests that represent hazards for surface activities after such tests. There are also restricted areas for rocket testing, satellite launches, and other range mission activities.
NASA restricted areas within the proposed exploration areas are offshore the Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC’s) Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia and offshore of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Also, five major DoD range complexes include periodic vessel access restrictions to portions each range complex.
Oil and gas explorers would be required to notify designated DoD or NASA personnel of the nature and schedule
for any pending exploration activity planned within military range complexes or NASA’s use areas.
Additionally, commercial fishing would be temporarily excluded from any exploration operation areas.
