June 20, 2012 – There are two weeks for the fishing industry to submit comments to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, [BOEM] regarding their proposal to allow seismic testing along the Atlantic coast from Florida to the tip of Cape May.
This comment period has been extended from the original date of May 30th, to July 2 2012. Seismic testing is conducted with Air gun arrays towed from the stern of a large vessel and are used to discover oil and gas reserves thousands of feet below the ocean bottom. In principle it works much like a sonar depth finder except that in order to penetrate thousands of feet of hard bottom the sound must be very loud. The airguns reach decibel levels of 240 dcb, and can actually be heard underwater a thousand miles away. The Blasts, are like dynomite, and throw a spray of water into the air. typically they are used in a 10 second repeat pattern over a distance of 10 to 15 miles at a time. Any marine animals within a half mile of this testing are in danger of suffering serious harm and even death. Marine mammals are most supcepible as they rely on hearing and their own sonar to communicate and find food. Amazingly the BOEM has estimated that this proposal will result in 138, 612 level A takes of marine mammals [ this means serious physical harm or even death]. Another 13.5 million marine mammals will be effected at Level B which means their feeding, mating, and migratory patterns will be disrupted in a scale that is unknown but certainly highly stressful. Since NOAA holds the fishing industry to what amounts to a zero take mortality level for Marine mammals it is an enormous double standard that is being proposed by the BOEM with NOAA's concurence. Thats right, Enviro Jane says its OK for big oil to blow up 138, 612 whales and dolphins, but don't you dare try to do it on your fishing boat.
The proposed testing would be open ended but in place for at least 8 years, get aload of some of these endangered animals big oil and Jane want to kill, 13 Sei Whales, 15 blue whales, 31 Fin Whales, 10 Northern right whales. 22,810 common dolphins, 17,039 short finned pilot whales, 20, 641 atlantic spotted dolphins, 42,649 bottlenosed dolphins, 47 harbor porpoise, 979 sperm whales, ect, ect… This genocide makes Hitler and Stalin look like amatures, and yet fishermen are the bad guys? If this hypocracy doesn't infuriate you, then nothing will. This seismic testing is also known to damage other marine creatures with Squid, and snow crabs having documented problems while a number of other sea creatures have been killed and otherwise damaged, but because it hasn't been documented by a PHD scientist it is just annie doctal information. Surely you have met Annie Doctal before, she's the one you see with your own eyes for years, but because no one has published a paper about her she doesn't exist. In Austrailia whole Scallop beds died within 2 months of seismic testing, but its annie Doctal. The oil companies have sucessfully made sure that there is no funding to discover the truth about the effects of seismic testing on the marine enviroment, Governments around the world have also helped them make sure no money is allocated to anyone who would upset the oil applecart. Interestingly the US and Nato Naval forces have owned up to about 20 different marine mammal stranding events around the world [1,000's of mortalities] that was caused by Sonar testing just in the last 20 years. Sonar and Seismic testing are different, but not that different. They are both low to mid frequency noises, and seismic testing is actually quite a bit louder on the decibel scale. It would stand to reason that the louder noise would also have a worse impact, but some how the oil companies march out experts at every marine mammal stranding to deny any link to seismic testing or drilling.
If you believe that we must "drill baby drill" to reduce our country's independence on foreign oil, then be aware that the known reserves on the US east coast from Florida to Maine, amounts to 1.9 billion barrels of oil. the US has exported over 1 billion barrels of oil for each of the last three years. If we stopped exporting our oil for less then 2 years, we wouldn't need to risk our multi billion dollar tourist and fishing industry. Don't believe we export that amount of oil? Its a fact available at the US energy information administration website. You have to dig for it though. These exports are why diesel fuel costs more then Gas in this country. We are turning into the worlds oil refiners and export our refined product overseas where the oil companies get more money for it. The diesel goes to Europe and China. Makes me sick, how about you? Don't forget these nice guys are the ones who created PEW, Oceana, and all the other enviro frauds to put you and our industry out of business. I say paybacks are a bitch. we can stop them from drilling on the east coast, and cause them the loss of billions of dollars. All you have to do is write a letter to BOEM from you or the fishing group you represent opposing this hypocitical double standard, and demanding that no seismic testing or oil drilling be allowed on the East coast. BTW this testing will be done in grids/ sectors that once they estimate how much oil and gas are in each sector, will then be put out for bid to the oil companies. Once the oil company buys this lease, they now would own the oil, and its value is considered a company asset, and they are allowed to depreciate it on their taxes, making oil land leases one on the biggest tax frauds around. Last week the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to Oppose this testing, please send a letter and do the same. I have more information including a spread sheet listing all the different Level A marine Mammal takes, and a list of the Naval mammal strandings among other stuff. I can't include it in this email as an attachment as the list serve is not set up for it, but if you send me an email I will send the info back to you. We really need some industry members from Florida, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolina's to step up and be heard. Commercial and recreational, time is running out, July 2 is not that far away, and this is a perfect opportunity to expose the enviro frauds who are putting us out of business, because the PEW and EDF groups are not surprisingly very silent on this matter.
Send comments to:
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Gulf of Mexico OCS Region
Office of Environment [MS 5410]
1201 Elmwood Park Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70123-2394
Comments can be submitted on line, you have to go to the BOEM website and figure it out. Please take a little time and write. thanks, Jim