April 17, 2014 –– MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — Commercial fishermen, already uncertain if they can economically survive the second summer after Sandy, have been rattled by learning scientists plan to conduct a 30-day study using booming underwater airguns to learn more about sediments underlying the sea floor off New Jersey.
“If the fish scatter … we need the fish concentrated to be profitable,” said Roy Diehl, president of the Belford Seafood Cooperative.
“We certainly support science … but it should get a pass,” said Cynthia Zipf of Clean Ocean Action, an environmental group that has long opposed seismic testing that oil and gas companies use to search for undersea deposits. Zipf said the survey in an area 15 to 35 miles southeast of Barnegat Light could disrupt summer populations of marine mammals including dolphins and whales.
The ocean activists also were alarmed by a final sentence in the document awarding National Science Foundation funding for the project: “Results may be of relevance for hydrocarbon exploration industry.”
Led by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, researchers with Rutgers University and the University of Texas are collaborating on the project with support from the National Science Foundation. The goal is to learn more about sediments from the present to 60 million years ago, and the clues they can provide about climate and sea level changes over the millenia.