May 22, 2015 — SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey Senate president and a congressman representing the Jersey shore are asking Rutgers University to cancel planned research that involves blasting the ocean floor with sound waves.
Senate President Steve Sweeney and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. wrote to Rutgers President Robert Barchi on Friday, saying the testing will harm or kill marine animals, including turtles, dolphins and whales, and will harm New Jersey’s crucial tourism industry.
The research is scheduled to start in June off Long Beach Island and comes after an aborted attempt to do the tests last summer that wound up in court.
Rutgers, the University of Texas and the National Science Foundation want to do research on sediments deposited on the ocean floor to study climate change. The plan is to complete a 3-D map of part of the ocean floor by studying the result of changing global sea levels, dating back 60 million years. The data may offer clues as to what could happen as the ocean rises.
But opponents say it also could be a precursor to drilling for oil and gas off New Jersey’s coast, which is not allowed.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News and World Report