Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, my bipartisan amendment would essentially prohibit geological or geophysical activities in support of oil and gas exploration and development in the Atlantic in fiscal year 2017. Most importantly, this includes seismic airgun blasting. In March of this year, the Department of the Interior removed the Atlantic Ocean from offshore oil and gas drilling until 2022. However, the administration is still considering permits to conduct seismic airgun blasting for subsea oil and gas deposits. Not only is this unnecessary, because drilling is not permitted, but this exploratory process would cause undue harm to marine resources. Seismic airgun pulses are loud, repetitive, explosive sounds. The produced sound can travel over enormous distances, due to its low pressure and high amplitude. Because sound travels so efficiently underwater, the noise from a blast can be heard up to 2,500 miles from the source, roughly the distance from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas. What these loud, repetitive, explosive sounds ultimately do is harm a range of aquatic species and the communities that rely upon them. Numerous studies have shown that noise from seismic airgun testing negatively impacts fish. Examples include 40 to 80 percent reduced catches in the Atlantic of cod, haddock, rockfish, herring, sand eel, and blue whiting. Sea turtles and invertebrates have also been found to demonstrate alarm and avoidance responses when exposed to seismic blasts.…”