14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, in February, the United States government forwarded a proposal that would make it possible for companies to go looking for oil and gas deposits along the country's East Coast.
Specifically, green group Oceana says that this proposal would open a region of the ocean floor that is about twice the size of California to seismic airgun use.
The organization claims that, should seismic airguns be put to work in this area between Florida and Delaware, the resulting blasts might injure, maybe even kill some 138,200 marine mammals such as dolphins and whales.
Besides, chances are that millions of other marine creatures, together with local fishermen, will also be affected by the use of seismic airguns in these waters.
“Seismic airgun testing is the first step towards deep-water drilling, which would inevitably bring the Atlantic coast one step closer to the same practice that brought us the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster,” Claire Douglass further details.
“While proposed seismic airgun testing would span from Delaware to Florida, an oil spill the size of that which flowed from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig would harm sea life, ecosystems, fisheries and coastal economies along the entire East Coast,” the conservationist adds.
The good news is that, according to Ocean, a total of 110 local elected officials and as many as 155 green groups and organizations have until now agreed to get behind efforts to prevent seismic airgun use along the United State's East Coast.
Thus, six coastal towns have passed local resolutions saying that they do not approve of this practice, and Oceana expects that similar measures will soon be implemented in other regions as well.
Now all that is left is convincing President Barack Obama that exploring or exploiting this region is a very bad idea and that marine ecosystems on the East Coast should not be disturbed.