Recently, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-SC) blasted a Trump official with an air horn. During a House committee hearing on the environmental impact of seismic airgun testing, the official claimed the practice isn’t disruptive to marine animals. That’s when Cunningham pulled out his air horn — a device 16,000 times quieter than the seismic guns.

The bold move follows the Trump administration’s decision last November to greenlight seismic surveys in the Atlantic, which are used to identify dirty energy deposits deep within the Atlantic Ocean floor. If the oil and gas industry gets its way, the continuous blasts of seismic airguns are expected to injure, harass, disrupt, and even kill marine life like whales, dolphins, and sea turtles across 200,000 square miles of ocean waters. In particular, the low, guttural bellows and high-pitched calls of the endangered North Atlantic right whale could soon be drowned out — or altogether silenced.

Read more at “Trump Regulators Gave Oil Industry a Pass to Injure Whales, and We’re Fighting Back.“

Categories: Seismic Testing, Whales

Tags: Activism, Atlantic Ocean, Environment, Seismic Testing, Whales