Clean Ocean Action (COA) is trying to stop off-shore oil exploration by stopping the use of seismic airguns. In addition to research for oil, the same technology (airguns) is a key tool for studying the earth. A current project is for a consortium of academics — led by Rutgers University — to use airguns to study the effects on our beaches of past sea level changes.
However, the COA campaign is built on creating fear by flagrantly misrepresenting the level and frequency of sound produced by the airguns. The COA argument that the airguns cause excessive death and destruction of marine life has no basis in fact and is scientifically without merit. COA is losing the credibility it needs to effectively wage any environmental campaign, such as being against drilling for hydrocarbons or reducing the impacts of bycatch.
We need the information obtained from the research use of airguns to increase our knowledge of the environmental role of earth processes, and we need a credible COA to educate the public and fight for the environmental issues.
Lincoln Hollister
Emeritus Professor of
Geosciences
Princeton University
Princeton