Endangered Whale Deaths Show Dangers of Ocean Drilling, Blasting
North Atlantic right whales are dying and Trump’s oil exploration plans could make things worse
The mass die-off of North Atlantic right whales this summer is a terrible tragedy for a critically endangered species with fewer than 500 individuals remaining.
It’s also a warning: We have to take better care of our oceans before it’s too late. And that starts with resisting the Trump administration’s push for more oil exploration and drilling in the Atlantic.
Scientists are still investigating the causes of these 15 whale deaths, but initial findings are that ship strikes or entanglement in fishing gear killed many of the whales.
Whatever killed these whales, we know that they and other marine mammals will be harmed by five different proposals to use seismic airgun blasts to search for oil in the Atlantic, which could receive their final permits any day now.
The proposals, to which the Trump administration gave initial approval just as these dead whales started washing up on East Coast beaches, is part of the administration’s push to expand offshore oil drilling. Seismic testing involves deafening airgun blasts every 10–12 seconds, 24 hours a day, for almost a year.
These blasts are 100,000 times louder than a jet engine. Federal studies show they would harm marine mammals millions of times and kill or injury an estimated nine more North Atlantic right whales, which scientists say were at serious risk of spiraling toward extinction even before the recent mass die-off.
Killing or injuring nine more and disrupting the feeding, mating and migration of other members of this imperiled population could accelerate their extinction, disrupting the ecological balance in this biologically and economically important ecosystem in the process.
Rules requiring ships to slow down in certain areas at certain times of year have helped reduce the number and severity of ship strikes that previously plagued the population. And the federal government recently protected nearly 40,000 square miles of the whale’s feeding, breeding and calving grounds as critical habitat.
But seismic blasts and oil spills don’t recognize protective boundaries. The blast from a single seismic airgun can disrupt essential whale behavior over an area at least 100,000 square nautical miles in size.
And it’s not just right whales at risk. The region’s humpback whales, lobsters, cod and a wide range of other marine species face both immediate and long-term threats from allowing oil exploration and production in the Atlantic, as well as from our country’s overall refusal to embrace a rapid transition to clean energy sources.
Seismic blasting and oil spills — and ocean warming and acidification over the long run — could be what pushes imperiled marine life over the edge.
Dying North Atlantic right whales are indicators that we’re not being good stewards of our seas. These magnificent animals were pushed to the brink of extinction by commercial whaling, until we decided to end that practice and try to save them.
The question we face today is whether we’re willing to evolve beyond the oil age before it’s too late for many, many more of our oceans’ creatures.
Kristen Monsell is a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program.
