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Trump Admin Proposes Seismic Surveys for Atlantic Drilling

Scientists across the country are raising concerns over the potential effects to marine life if a National Marine Fisheries Service proposal advances authorizing seismic oil and gas surveys in Atlantic coastal waters of the U.S.

At the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, senior scientist Charles “Stormy” Mayo says that while the research community would like to know more about how sound affects all marine organisms, there is no doubt that whales traveling along the Atlantic seaboard could be affected by the blasts.

“Whales are apparently very sensitive to sound and a number of studies have shown that noises substantially less even than the noises proposed in this survey can have detrimental effects — potentially substantial ones,” Mayo says.

The proposal comes as the result of a recent executive order by President Donald Trump to roll back a 5-year ban on oil and gas leasing and drilling off the East Coast implemented by the Obama administration.