A Suit Over Seismic Blasts
Multiple environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government following news that the Trump administration has allowed five companies to conduct seismic surveys for oil and gas deposits under the Atlantic Ocean floor.
The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina on Tuesday, claims that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued Incidental Harassment Authorizations in late November, which would allow the companies to harm or harass marine mammals, including the critically endangered right whale, while conducting seismic air gun blasting in an area stretching from Cape May, N.J., to Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Seismic surveying is the first step toward offshore drilling for oil and gas. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management must grant permits to the companies before they can conduct such surveys.
The Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Coastal Conservation League, and the Sierra Club are among the groups suing the federal government.
Seismic air guns emit loud blasts on a recurring basis, 10 seconds apart for 24 hours a day, often for weeks at a time, according to the environmental group Greenpeace. The sonic blasts penetrate through the ocean and miles into the seafloor and can harm whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and fish. They can result in temporary and permanent hearing loss, habitat abandonment, disruption of mating and feeding, beachings, and death, according to Greenpeace.
Opposition to the plan has come from the governors of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware; more than 240 state municipalities on the East Coast; an alliance representing more than 42,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families; all three East Coast fishery management councils, and commercial and recreational fishing interests including the Southeastern Fisheries Association, the Snook and Gamefish Foundation, the Fisheries Survival Fund, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, the Billfish Foundation, and the International Game Fish Association.