A heated debate is taking place in the USA about seismic airguns and the consequences it has on the marine life.
Marine mammals, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale, use sound for navigation, communication, as well as to locate food – seismic blasts caused by the airguns may disrupt these behaviours and possibly deafen these animals.
Seismic airguns are towed behind boats and are used to map oil and gas deposits beneath the seafloor by shooting pulses of compressed air through the water every 10 seconds for days, or even weeks on end. Creating a deafening sound, extremely harmful to marine life such as whales and dolphins but also fish. The US government have estimated that if seismic airguns are to be allowed in the Atlantic, a minimum of 138,500 dolphins and whales will be injured or possibly killed as a consequence.
Seismic airguns have furthermore been found to have a negative impact on fisheries. Where the airgun noise has the potential to lead to commercially important species being displaced over a vast area, decreased catch rates as well as increased mortality of fish eggs and larvae.
Despite these dangers, the US government has announced that it is planning to allow energy companies to use seismic airguns to search for offshore deposits along a massive stretch of the US East Atlantic Coast, from Delaware to Florida.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have released a plan on how they are to mitigate the impacts of airguns on right whales and other species. The plan includes mitigation measures such as: time-area closures for right whales and loggerhead sea turtles, acoustic monitoring and visual surveys, and shut-down procedures for when a marine mammal is present. But is this enough?
Oceana, an international marine focused NGO, argues that seismic airguns and oil rigs should be kept out of the Atlantic Ocean until better technologies exist. Foremost, the focus should lie on smart investments in the Atlantic’s most valuable resource—its health.