U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone calls for a halt to a planned seismic study of the ocean floor off the New Jersey coast this summer during a press conference in Point Pleasant Beach. Environmental activists and a local legislator are urging Rutgers University to halt a seismic testing study planned for this summer, saying it would be detrimental to marine life and the local fishing industry.
Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action (COA), said during a May 23 press conference in Point Pleasant Beach that the study will include producing a 230- decibel sound blast on the ocean floor off the coast of Barnegat that will impact animal life throughout the shoreline.
“The study will be to blast sound waves deep into the sediment to look for sea level rise and climate change evidence,” Zipf said. “They want to augment some physical core samples that they took in 2009, and this data will provide a 3-D image of the deep sea floor.”
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6) spoke at the event, launching a campaign to halt the seismic testing, which is expected to impact a 240-square-mile area over the course of 30 days, concluding Aug. 17.
The initiative includes a letter-writing campaign to the Rutgers administration, an online petition and a banner plane, which flew over the Jersey Shore on Memorial Day weekend and advertised for www.stoprutgersoceanblasting.org.
According to Zipf, the study is being conducted by Rutgers, Columbia University and the University of Texas, and is being funded by the National Science Foundation.
During the press conference, which was held at the Shore Fresh Seafood Market and Restaurant, Zipf played a sample of the sound made by the seismic test after giving earplugs to the attendees.
The proposal is currently pending approval by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is under the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The NMFS has conditionally granted authorization to the researchers to disturb 26 marine mammal species during the study. Pallone said the study is a prelude to offshore drilling. “The fact of the matter is, once you start down that path, it is like a domino effect,” he said. “You do the seismic activity and then they justify that we can do the oil and gas drilling.
“If you are going to do seismic testing, that information is going to be made public. The oil companies are going to try to use it to justify that they should be able to go out and do drilling.”
Pallone said one of his initiatives in Congress has been to halt all offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We’ve been involved with trying to stop what I call pre-drilling activities or activities that lead up to oil and gas drilling for a long time,” he said. “When I was first elected to Congress in 1988, my first bill was to prevent oil and gas drilling off the coast of the Atlantic.”
Gregory Mountain, a researcher with Rutgers University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said on May 29 that the testing is strictly for a climate change study.
“I can’t emphasize enough that we are not involved in any effort to try to find hydrocarbons,” he said. “We are a research organization, and I am trying to understand the history of sea level change. “
Jim Lovgren, spokesman for the Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative, said the study would have a detrimental impact on what has become a $1.3 billion industry for New Jersey.
“What’s being proposed could be devastating to the commercial and recreational fishing industry,” Lovgren said. “That’s not a dinner bell for fish. If you’re in the water and you hear that sound, you don’t know what it is and it’s hurting you.
“We suffered some substantial damage the last year and a half just from Sandy. Now we are going to have Hurricane Rutgers come by and blow us up again.”
Pallone also took his alma mater to task for the study.
“This is a slippery slope, and we’ve got to put a stop to it,” he said. “I am very disappointed with my own state university.
“I really don’t want my university, which is taxpayer-funded, to be involved in something that is environmentally irresponsible and deters a major tourism industry in New Jersey.”
According to Zipf, the testing involves a large boat trolling through the Atlantic Ocean using both an air gun and echo sounders to derive data.
Marine species that could be negatively impacted by the testing include scallops, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, loggerhead turtles, squid, clams and sturgeons.
Mountain said 26 endangered species have been identified in East Coast waters, and the testing is scheduled to be minimally invasive.
“The National Marine Fisheries Service have regulated our activities so that we are in between migration seasons of the large mammals so that we will have minimal chance of intersecting any one of them,” he said.
He said dolphins would only be harmed if they swim close to the equipment.
“The harm … would be if they do swim right up next to the seismic sources that we use, they are exposed to high levels of noise,” he said, adding that researchers shoot bubbles to try to keep marine life away from the testing areas.
Lovgren said many species are already endangered and would be threatened by the study.
“There is not going to be fish out there for 30 or 40 miles,” he said. “You’ve heard that sound — it travels through the water way more than it travels through the air.”
Ray Bogan, attorney for the Recreational Fishing Alliance, said the fishing industry supports studying the impacts of climate change, but seismic testing is counterproductive.
“As far as research is concerned, we are strong advocates,” he said. “We would be wholly supportive of the idea of having constructive research done that causes no harm to the very industries, to the very folks who could otherwise benefit from this.
“We see no benefit derived — either directly or indirectly — for the industries that could be negatively impacted by this.”
Tom Fote, legislative operations manager of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, said even prior to the testing commercial and recreational fishing has been shrinking over the past 10 years.
“This is just a bad idea. We have enough trouble with the industry going on right now,” Fote said. “There are tackle stores closing up right now, there are party boats going out of business, and there are commercial fishermen going out of business.”