Saving Seafood

North Carolina asks firms for seismic information

January 2, 2018 — RALEIGH, N.C. — The state Division of Coastal Management (DCM) has asked four companies to submit more information about proposed seismic testing for offshore oil and gas because the original proposals did not consider the latest scientific studies on the harmful effects to marine life.

According to a press release from the division, documentation to show that the companies’ plans are consistent with state coastal management rules were submitted and approved in 2015.

However, the administration of then-President Barack Obama did not approve the testing, and removed waters off North Carolina and the rest of the East Coast from the offshore drilling plan for 2017-22.

Many local governments along the coast, including Emerald Isle, Morehead City, Atlantic Beach and Beaufort, had urged the president not to OK testing and drilling.

Since then, however, President Donald Trump has restarted the process and directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to develop a new offshore drilling plan, expanding the years it would be valid.

According to the DCM release, additional seismic studies have since been conducted and suggest that shipboard seismic airgun arrays can significantly affect marine life.

Spectrum Geo Inc., GX Technology, MCNV Marine North America and TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. all want permission to tow arrays of the airguns behind ships, sending pulses to the ocean floor to locate oil and gas deposits.

DCM sent the companies letters requiring more information supporting their position that the plans meet state coastal policies.

Southport resident Randy Sturgill, who helped coordinate local and statewide anti-drilling-and-testing opposition efforts in North Carolina for Oceana, an international conservation group, said Friday it was good to see that the state “has its finger on the pulse,” not only on state residents’ feelings about offshore seismic testing and oil and gas drilling, but also on the latest science about the testing.

Read the full story at the Carteret County News-Times

 

Trump administration nears decision that sets stage for offshore drilling in the Atlantic

September 11, 2017 — Environmental groups are bracing for the Trump administration to approve controversial testing along the Eastern seaboard that would mark a significant step toward offshore drilling in waters off the coast of Florida all the way north to the Delaware Bay.

Five geophysical survey companies are seeking federal permission to shoot pressurized air blasts into the ocean every 10 to 12 seconds around the clock for weeks and months at a time, seeking fossil fuel deposits beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor.

The testing, which would cover 330,000 square miles of ocean, faces fierce opposition from environmental groups and local officials due to the possible economic and environmental effects.

Because the underwater blasts are louder than a Saturn V rocket launch and can be heard by monitoring devices more than 2,500 miles away, scientists fear long-term exposure to the noise could cause hearing loss and impair breeding, feeding, foraging and communication activity among dolphins, endangered whales, other marine mammals and sea turtles.

Some worry the blasts could cause mother whales and their calves to become separated. Commercial and recreational fisheries could also be affected if fish change their breeding and spawning habits to avoid the noise. Others fear disoriented marine life could collide with the vessels that tug the air guns or become entangled in their lines. Oceana, an international conservation group, estimates that 138,000 marine mammals could be injured in the testing process.

Seventy-five marine scientists asked the Obama administration in 2015 to reject seismic air gun testing in the Atlantic because of these threats. Twenty-eight marine biologists did the same in 2016 over concerns that testing would harm the estimated 500 endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“That’s the species we are most concerned about,” said Doug Nowacek, associate professor of conservation technology at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. “They are in decline. They live coastally along the U.S. They were hunted (by whalers) and they were slowly recovering. And now they’re starting to decline again.”

Read the full story from the McClatchy Company at the Miami Herald