December 17, 2018 — LAST WEEK, the administration of President Donald Trump approved requests by five companies to search for oil and gas deposits along the Atlantic coast by conducting seismic surveys.
This approval was granted despite the opposition of every governor on the East Coast except Maine’s and despite opposition from hundreds of coastal municipalities, and without holding listening sessions in the affected coastal communities.
As elected representatives of Dare County and Nags Head, we share concerns over threats to North Carolina’s coast. We are both Republicans and conservationists. We both recognize the importance of a healthy coast to maintain our prosperity and way of life. Our combined history of listening to our constituents and neighbors allows us to speak out about risks to our coastal business sector and livelihoods, and we can say with certainty: Offshore oil-drilling activities are bad for business, and North Carolinians don’t want them.
Seismic testing alone, even if it doesn’t lead to wells being drilled, will be harmful enough. Seismic surveys use air gun arrays towed by ships to produce powerful sound waves. Sudden releases of pressurized air create the sound, with up to 20 guns fired simultaneously. Most air gun arrays can be 200 to 240 decibels in water, equivalent to about 140 to 180 decibels in air. A loud rock concert is about 120 decibels, and a jet engine from 100 feet away is about 140 decibels. And a typical seismic air gun array might fire such sound waves into the ocean five or six times a minute — more than 7,000 shots in 24 hours.