Big Oil wants to explore the Atlantic Ocean with seismic airguns. This could kill over 100,000 dolphins and whales.
Carolin, tell the Obama administration to stop Big Oil from killing marine mammals today!
Dear Reader,
As you probably know, whales and dolphins rely on their ears to find food. Even the smallest damage to their hearing can pose a grave threat to their survival.
A deaf dolphin is a dead dolphin -- but that hasn't stopped Big Oil from moving full speed ahead with plans to explore the Atlantic Ocean using seismic airguns! Their blasts will render these beautiful creatures deaf and helpless. [1]
If we let Big Oil get away with this, then over 100,000 dolphins and whales could die -- including some of the world's last North Atlantic right whales. [2]
Carolin, we can still stop this project. It's up to folks like you to show the Obama administration that Americans side with endangered wildlife -- not climate-destroying greed.
These airguns would blast for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Matthew Huelsenbeck, a marine scientist at Oceana, gives that some perspective: "Imagine dynamite going off in your living room or in your backyard every ten seconds for days to weeks at a time." [3] Big Oil says they'll limit their activity to certain areas, but when it comes to protecting wildlife, that's just ridiculous -- we all know that fish swim and whales migrate.
The right whales in particular need our help -- Huelsenbeck calls them "the rarest of the large whales... the American bison of the sea." [4] New technology is in the works that would at least help the dolphins, but in all its greed, Big Oil doesn't want to wait for that tech to be ready. They claim they'll incorporate the new science as it comes in, but until then, even the dolphins are just sorry-out-of-luck.
It gets worse -- seismic airguns don't just maim and kill dolphins and whales. They also present tremendous risks to sensitive coastal environments and the economies that rely on them. Perhaps worst of all, this greedy pursuit of dirty fossil fuels would occur in the very places most affected by climate change.
Earlier this year, more than 100 prominent marine scientists and conservation biologists sent a letter opposing these plans. [5] Will you take 30 seconds to get their backs and submit your own comment today?
In it together,
Nathan Empsall
SierraRise Senior Campaigner
P.S. Five comments are even more powerful than one -- after you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends, family, and colleagues!
