BOEM denies seismic testing in Atlantic

Environmentalists along the East Coast are taking a collective sigh of relief after the Obama administration announced it has denied all six pending permits to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is one last parting gift from a president and an administration that understands the value of a healthy and vibrant ocean, one which cares about protecting Atlantic communities from climate change, and one which actually listens to its constituents and works with them to create good policy,” said Caroline Wood, Mid-Atlantic campaign organizer for Oceana, an international ocean conservation advocacy organization.

Seismic testing uses air guns and other equipment to locate potential oil, gas and mineral resources below the ocean floor. Those blasts are described as louder than a jet engine and the sound can reach miles beyond the source of origin. When testing is underway, blasts typically occur every 10 seconds, 24 hours per day, seven days per week for years until the studies are complete.

Scientific studies have shown seismic testing can have both short-term and long-term effects, including trauma or injury to marine animals, and it can scare away fish species – resulting in a significant impact to recreational and commercial fishing industries.

“In addition to being extremely loud, these blasts are of special concern to marine life, including fish, turtles and whales, which depend on sound for communication and survival,” Wood said. “Numerous studies demonstrate the negative impacts that seismic airgun noise has on ocean ecosystems, including reduced catch rates of commercially valuable fish and silencing bowhead whales.”

Seismic testing was still on the table months after the Obama administration eliminated the option to drill for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this year. The Arctic Ocean also was removed from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's 5-year lease program, which spans 2017-22. Despite the elimination of oil and gas drilling, several companies still applied to conduct seismic testing in lease areas that stretched from the southern tip of Delaware to Florida.

“The denial of the permits is the right thing to do because the mid- and south-Atlantic has been removed from the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program,” said Chris Bason, executive director at the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays. “Thanks to all those who advocated for our coast, serious damage to coastal fisheries and to populations of whales and dolphins will be avoided.”

Throughout the last two years, more than 100 East Coast communities – including Milton, Lewes, Dewey Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island – passed resolutions opposing oil and gas drilling and seismic testing in the mid-Atlantic. Communities argued that the risks associated with drilling would far outweigh the benefits.

"Neither our workers and businesses of, nor our hundreds of thousands of recreational visitors to, the City of Lewes should have to face the threat of an oil spill or the widespread industrial development that would be necessary for developing an oil and gas industry," read the resolution passed by Lewes council in November 2015.

In December 2016, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell also applauded President Obama's decision to permanently protect the Outer Continental Shelf from future mineral extraction activities. The protected areas include 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic, from Heezen Canyon off New England to Norfolk Canyon off the Chesapeake Bay, and 115 million acres in the Arctic Ocean.

“The withdrawal will help build the resilience of these vital ecosystems, provide refuges for at-risk species, sustain commercial fisheries and subsistence traditions, and create natural laboratories for scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change,” Jewel said in a press release.

However, warned Delaware Center for the Inland Bays Board Chair Joanne Cabry, the next 5-year plan may not be so forgiving.

“While I'm very happy it happened and I'm grateful, I think we still have to keep working,” she said. “With this incoming administration, I don't have the same kind of confidence that they will listen as President Obama did. We still have to keep working for a fossil fuel-free economy. Then seismic testing will become a moot point.”

For more about BOEM's 5-year plan, go to www.boem.gov.