Office of Protected Resources F/PR National Marine Fisheries Service 1315 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910
To whom it may concern,
Noise in the ocean from seismic surveys can have adverse impacts on whales and other marine life. Potential impacts to marine mammals include hearing damage, interruption of calls used for communication and navigation, habitat degradation, and adding stress to animals that may already be facing numerous other threats. Seismic airgun surveys used for oil and gas exploration are known to have large-scale effects on whales and can disrupt activities that are essential to their survival.
In 2016, 28 leading experts on the endangered North Atlantic right whale wrote to the previous Administration describing the significant threat that seismic surveys pose to this species, which is one of the most endangered whales in the world and has only about 500 remaining individuals. I join these scientists in expressing deep concerns about the National Marine Fisheries Service’s NMFS decision to reopen the permitting process for seismic oil and gas surveys in the Atlantic.
Marine mammal scientists at WCS and a number of other respected institutions have indicated that the introduction of seismic airgun exploration activities into the Atlantic can have significant, long-lasting, and widespread impacts to marine mammal and fish populations in the region.
I urge NMFS to withdraw these proposed authorizations!
