While New Jersey is not the immediate target, there’s concern that Trump approval of controversial process could open the door to offshore drilling in the region
Raven Santana reports for NJTV News:
Environmental advocates joined Congressman Frank Pallone on Asbury Park’s boardwalk to denounce President Donald Trump’s approval of five incidental harassment authorization permits, which allow companies to use seismic air guns to search for offshore oil and natural gas in the Atlantic.
“It’s like being stuck in an underwater fireworks display for days at end, with no end in sight, creating havoc in our coastal environment,” said NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel.
It’s a process, they say, that can disturb, harm and potentially kill marine life.
“I don’t want to draw any conclusions, but it was very suspicious that the last time we had seismic testing off the coast of New Jersey was the Rutgers geological study that was done. And that was a fraction, a mere fraction, of the size of what we’re talking about. And within days of that happening, four whales were found dead in our region — within days of one another — and that was just directly after that seismic blasting,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action.
Zipf says while seismic testing will not take place directly off New Jersey, it will affect communities along the Jersey coast.
“In the impact zone, you’re going to have the most devastation. But further away, even, there will be harm; marine life won’t know what’s going on, mothers have been known to leave their calves because they’re in a frenzy, they don’t know what’s happening,” Zipf said. “Fish get completely confused, too. They hear this sound and they scatter because they don’t know if it’s a predator or not, so it disrupts the whole ecosystem for tens of thousands of miles away.”
The concern is that seismic testing opens a door for offshore drilling in the Atlantic and along New Jersey’s coast.
The effort to stop seismic testing and offshore drilling is a bipartisan one. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has signed on to a letter with 53 other members of Congress to deny a final permit for companies to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic.
