Saving Seafood

DAILY PRESS: Seismic blasting is too risky along Atlantic Coast

January 15, 2019 — Imagine the misery of living next to a rock quarry in a place where local laws did not inhibit the company’s use of explosives or the times they could blast.

That constant, annoying presence is what some environmental protection groups fear will happen to marine life if the Atlantic Coast is opened for underwater oil and gas exploration.

The Atlantic Ocean is a virtually untapped expanse for energy companies, and the Trump administration wants to open nearly 200,000 square miles from New Jersey to Florida for companies to seek out subsea oil and gas deposits as a way of shoring up the country’s energy independence.

The first step in that process is seismic blasting, a practice that environmental activists and coastal communities — including business groups that rely on seafood and marine tourism — are decrying as potentially harmful to their ways of life.

If allowed, boats would traverse Atlantic Ocean waters for months towing two to three dozen air guns that create underwater explosions of up to 180 decibels every 10 to 15 seconds.

Read the opinion piece at the Daily Press

US House Democrats file bills to stop offshore drilling, exploration

January 10, 2019 — House Democrats on Tuesday, 8 January, introduced a series of bills that would block the Trump administration from permitting offshore drilling in various regions of the U.S. exclusive economic zone.

Opponents of offshore drilling claim the practice could devastate both the environment and the economies of coastal communities, with the fishing industry particularly at risk.

“President Trump’s dangerous plans for offshore drilling will risk the livelihoods of millions on the Atlantic Coast and in New Jersey,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey, U.S.A.-based Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “An oil spill anywhere along the Atlantic Coast would cause severe environmental damage to fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife. I will work with members of the New Jersey delegation and colleagues in Congress to pass the COAST Anti-Drilling Act and prevent the Trump administration from wreaking havoc on New Jersey’s coastal communities.”

The moves came as the administration plans to release its vision to explore for fuel deposits in U.S. waters. In late November, NOAA Fisheries authorized five companies to use seismic air guns to survey the Atlantic Ocean floor from New Jersey to Florida. The survey results would then be made available to oil and gas companies who would seek drilling permits.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coastal Congress members move to ban offshore drilling

January 9, 2019 —  Seven members of the House of Representatives, including New Jersey’s Frank Pallone, D-6th, said Tuesday they will introduce legislation to block the Trump administration from expanding offshore drilling for gas and oil.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, said he has signed on as a co-sponsor to Pallone’s bill, which would permanently ban offshore oil and gas development in the Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Atlantic, Straits of Florida and Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Van Drew expects the legislation to be introduced Wednesday.

“The bottom line is offshore drilling isn’t worth the risk,” said Van Drew, adding he still believes we need to rely on fossil fuels for a time.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Public Aquariums Join in Opposition to Seismic Blasting Along Atlantic Coast

December 21, 2018 — A coalition of major public aquariums have announced that they are opposed to the federal government’s pending issuance of permits allowing for repeated seismic blasting along the East Coast in search of offshore oil and gas.

The New England Aquarium says that marine scientists are concerned that the prolonged and extreme noise pollution introduced into already highly stressed ocean environments will disturb marine life from tiny plankton to commercially valuable fish stocks to giant whales.

The Boston-based marine conservation organization has joined the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, the North Carolina Aquariums and the New York Aquarium and parent Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in opposition to NOAA’s recent affirmation of the sound blasting program from Delaware to Florida.

“We do know that there are a range of effects from severe lethal mortality in a number of species as well as sub-lethal effects that effect the ability of animals to communicate with each other and find prey, which can essentially result in larger ecosystem effects,” said Mystic Aquarium’s Senior Researcher, Peter Auster.

“This is ultimately a decision about balancing the desire for exploration and finding new oil and gas deposits with our obligation as stewards of the environment. We just think that the decision that was made doesn’t consider all the risks and we hope that this garners greater scrutiny of the decision and then potentially other decisions down the road.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

East Coast states sue to challenge Trump’s offshore oil move

December 21, 2018 — Nine states along the East Coast have joined a lawsuit challenging a key move by the Trump administration that could allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The states’ Democratic attorneys general are objecting both to the possible harm to marine life from the administration-approved seismic testing and to the potential offshore drilling that could result from the testing.

The states filed a motion to join a lawsuit environmental groups filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

“Seismic testing will have dangerous consequences for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including endangered species,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who is leading the multistate effort, said in a statement Thursday.

“While the administration continues to place the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of our precious natural resources, attorneys general up and down the Atlantic coast will continue to fight these and other efforts to open the waters off our shores to drilling for oil and gas.”

Frosh announced his lawsuit at Baltimore’s National Aquarium in an effort to highlight what he says would be the damage to marine life from both the testing and any drilling.

Read the full story at The Hill

Lawsuit filed over Trump plans for offshore drilling tests

December 12, 2018 — Environmental groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday over offshore drilling tests, launching a legal fight against a proposal that has drawn bipartisan opposition along the Atlantic Coast.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, claims the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued five permits for the use of seismic air guns.

“This action is unlawful and we’re going to stop it,” Diane Hoskins, campaign director at OCEANA, said in a news release. “The Trump administration’s rash decision to harm marine mammals hundreds of thousands of times in the hope of finding oil and gas is shortsighted and dangerous.”

The coalition includes OCEANA, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, Surfrider Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, One Hundred Miles and the Sierra Club, as well as the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The blasts are conducted in preparation for potential offshore drilling, which the administration has proposed to expand from the Atlantic to the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The five-year plan would open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to private development.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Virginia conservationists blast approval of seismic testing for oil, gas in Atlantic

December 4, 2018 — Virginia conservationists are blasting the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course and approve seismic air gun surveys along the Atlantic coast to search for buried oil and gas reserves.

The groups cite widespread public opposition to seismic blasting and offshore drilling, as well as the harm posed to marine life and coastal economies that rely on healthy waters and wetlands.

“This action flies in the face of massive opposition to offshore drilling and exploration from over 90 percent of coastal municipalities in the proposed blast zone,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at the D.C.-based advocacy group Oceana. “President (Donald) Trump is essentially giving these companies permission to harass, harm and possibly even kill marine life.”

“Offshore drilling in our region would pose far too many risks to the health of coastal waters and the Chesapeake Bay, fishing, aquaculture, tourism and all jobs that depend on clean water,” said Lisa Feldt, vice president for environmental protection and restoration at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We need to run away from offshore drilling, not move towards it.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press

NOAA Approves Seismic Blasts off Coast of Md., Va.

December 4, 2018 — The federal government has cleared the way for five companies to do seismic surveys in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, as a first step to possible offshore drilling for gas and oil.

National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gave final authorization, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to “incidentally, but not intentionally, harass marine mammals to companies proposing to conduct geophysical surveys in support of hydrocarbon exploration in the Atlantic Ocean.”

That means NOAA Fisheries will allow seismic blasts even though they may unintentionally disturb marine mammals. The companies will be required to monitor acoustics, and take action to reduce the impact on animals. The required actions include vessels listening and watching for marine life, especially protected species. Companies must increase the seismic activity gradually “to alert animals in the area and reduce potential for exposure to intense noise.” And when certain sensitive species are nearby, they must stop blasting.

The geophysical surveys use airgun arrays to explore for hydrocarbons. A 2017 Presidential Executive Order encourages energy exploration like this. The NOAA Fisheries decision to allow blasting on the Atlantic Coast was met with outrage from conservation groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says there is no evidence that seismic surveys harm marine life, but a study it conducted in 2014 shows that nearly three million dolphins and half a million whales could be harassed, or worse, by survey activity.

Read the full story at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine

Group calls on Maine’s federal reps to oppose offshore drilling along entire Atlantic coast

November 19, 2018 — A small group of environmental activists gathered in Bangor Saturday to call on Maine’s congressional delegates to express more opposition to offshore drilling.

Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree all previously voiced their stances opposing offshore drilling in New England, but the group called on them to prevent the practice along the entire Atlantic Coast.

“What we want is for them to increase their opposition and oppose offshore drilling in the entire Atlantic ocean, not just in New England,” said Sarah Starman, a field organizer with Oceana. “We believe that drilling anywhere will affect everyone because oil spills don’t respect state boundaries.”

Senator Collins and King sent a joint letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke back in January — expressing their stances against drilling in New England.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree also voiced her opposition directly to the Secretary during an Appropriations Committee meeting in June.

“Countless Maine jobs depend on the health of the ocean. The Maine lobster, aquaculture, and tourism industries are among the many critical industries dependent on Maine’s pristine waters, and even a minor spill could irreparably damage the ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine,” Senator Collins said in a written statement. “That’s why I oppose any effort to open waters off the coast of Maine to offshore drilling, which could negatively affect the health of Maine’s fisheries and other coastal resources, threatening to harm not only the environment but the state’s economy as well.”

Senator King also said during a floor speech in February:

“In Maine…we depend upon the coast,” Senator King said. “Tourism and visitation to our beaches and coastal communities are a billion dollar industry, the largest single employer in our state. So that is an enormous economic engine that is currently working, and running, and powering at least a portion of the economy in our state. And of course, on my tie, I have lobsters. A $1.7 billion a year industry in Maine and it promises to be even stronger as processing is developed. We also have an offshore fishing industry, shrimp, shellfish. It is enormously important. It is part of who we are in the state of Maine.”

Read the full story at News Center Maine

FLORIDA: Off-shore drilling ban goes to voters

October 25, 2018 — In just a few short weeks, Florida voters will head to the polls to vote on candidates and amendments to the Florida Constitution.

The 12 constitutional amendments on this year’s ballot are the most since 1998. One of those amendments concerns an issue that is a hot topic for Floridians and environmentalists.

Amendment 9 would prohibit offshore oil and gas drilling in state-owned waters. While this amendment is a good first step for Florida, some local officials and international organizations say it’s not enough.

“While Amendment 9 would be a great step and a great showing of public opposition, it still doesn’t get to the heart of the leasing plan that’s in federal waters,” said Loryn Baughman, the U.S. communications associate for Oceana, an ocean conservation and advocacy organization.

Currently, the Gulf of Mexico is split up into three separate sections: the western, central and eastern sections. Oil drilling is allowed in the western and central sections but the eastern section is under a moratorium until 2022 as part of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.

“The Trump Administration released a (oil drilling) proposal in January that involves 90 percent of all U.S. waters, including the eastern Gulf,” said Hunter Miller, the Florida Gulf Coast campaign manager for Oceana.

Miller referenced the Deepwater Horizons oil spill that occurred in 2010 and said it’s still not known just how much damage was done ecologically to the fisheries and ocean environments.

Read the full story at The Destin Log