11/03/2015 (4) - Laserfiche WebLink

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interfere with larval or embryonic development. And threatened and endangered sea turtles, although almost completely unstudied for their vulnerability to noise impacts, have their most sensitive hearing in the same low frequencies in which most airgun energy is concentrated. The Interior Department's decision to authorize seismic surveys along the Atlantic coast is based on the premise that these activities would have only a negligible impact on marine species and populations. Our expert assessment is that the Department's premise is not supported by the best available science. On the contrary, the magnitude of the proposed seismic activity is likely to have significant, long-lasting, and widespread impacts on the reproduction and survival of fish and marine mammal populations in the region, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which only 500 remain. Opening the U.S. east coast to seismic airgun exploration poses an unacceptable risk of serious harm to marine life at the species and population levels, the full extent of which will not be understood until long after the harm occurs. Mitigating such impacts requires a much better understanding of cumulative effects, which have not properly been assessed, as well as strict, highly precautionary limits on the amounts of annual and concurrent survey activities, which have not been prescribed. To proceed otherwise is simply not sustainable. We respectfully urge you, Mr. President, to reverse the Interior Department's decision and bar the introduction of seismic oil and gas surveys in the Atlantic. Sincerely, Edmund Gerstein, Ph.D. Director, Marine Mammal Research Charles E. Schmidt College of Science Florida Atlantic University Christopher Clark, Ph.D. Senior Scientist Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell University Doug Nowacek, Ph.D. Repass -Rodgers Chair of Marine Conservation Technology Nicholas School of the Environment & Pratt School of Engineering Duke University