JASNY: Sound off against seismic tests
Process harms marine life, sets stage for offshore drilling
5:50 PM, Apr. 19, 2012
Imagine dynamite going off in your neighborhood every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months on end. Now imagine that you depend on your hearing to feed, mate, travel, communicate and do just about everything else necessary for survival.
That?s the situation that endangered whales, commercially valuable fish and other marine wildlife are facing after the Obama administration announced earlier this month that it is opening up the Atlantic to seismic exploration for oil and gas for the first time in 30 years.
Beginning this week ? nearly two years to the day of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico ? the public will have a chance to weigh in on this as the administration kicks off a series of hearings along the East Coast. New Jersey?s hearing will be held April 27 in Atlantic City.
Seismic testing is not only a gateway to offshore drilling but a major assault on our oceans in itself. As the scientific community has recognized, seismic testing has harmful impacts on ocean wildlife. These, in turn, can damage coastal economies as well....
