Protect Marine Mammals in the Gulf of Mexico from Seismic Testing
In its final days in office, the Trump administration pushed through a regulation that could have grave consequences for marine mammals and our climate.
Fossil fuel companies are now approved to search for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico through a process known as seismic testing, where they pollute the ocean with high-volume airguns blasting underwater every 10 seconds for days, weeks, and even months on end.
The noise the airguns generate is deafening to whales and dolphins, impairing their ability to find food, communicate with each other, navigate, and breed. The Trump administration's dangerous seismic testing regulation threatens countless marine mammals.
Join others in calling on Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to stop seismic testing for new leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
To Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce:
Please reverse the Trump administration regulation allowing seismic testing in the Gulf of Mexico. It is in direct violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Seismic testing produces deafening underwater blasts that impair marine mammals' ability to find food, communicate, navigate, and breed.
The rule would allow the oil and gas industry to disrupt, and in some cases injure, Gulf whales and dolphins more than eight million times over the next five years. These species are still decades from recovering from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Please protect our marine mammals and reverse this dangerous rule.
Thank you.
Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) is a global ocean conservation nonprofit based in Olema, California. Learn more about our species-saving campaigns at www.seaturtles.org.