Imagine living in a neighborhood where a huge blast, like a stick of dynamite, exploded every 10-12 seconds non-stop for weeks to months on-end.
Under the Trump administration’s plan to rollback existing protections against offshore drilling in the Atlantic, seismic airgun blasting – the way companies propose searching for oil and gas deposits on the Outer Continental Shelf – could be coming our way. Boats towing lines with up to 40 seismic airguns will detonate them to map potential oil and gas deep below the ocean’s floor – a precursor to oil platforms and related infrastructure lining East Coast communities.
The blasts – among the loudest man-made sounds in the ocean – can be heard underwater up to 2,500 miles away. Scientists confirm that the explosions could be harmful and disruptive to marine life, possibly forcing whales and sea turtles to change their migratory and mating patterns, and driving fish away from their feeding grounds.