The first step of offshore drilling is seismic airgun blasting to explore for oil and gas deposits beneath the seafloor. This produces noise pollution that is devastating - and even fatal - to whales, dolphins, and other marine life.
It’s no secret that offshore oil and gas development is highly damaging to the environment and the many types of marine life that call the ocean home. From pollution from routine operations to catastrophic oil spills to climate change, offshore drilling causes harmful impacts to our ocean and coastal ecosystems — as well as the human communities that depend on them — through every stage of the process. But what many people don’t know is that the damage to our ocean begins well before any oil and gas drilling even occurs.
Seismic airgun blasting is used by the oil and gas industry to identify potential oil and gas deposits beneath the seafloor. To carry out these surveys, ships tow airgun arrays that emit thousands of high-decibel sound waves. These sounds can be upwards of 240 decibels or more, which is louder than a rock concert or a jet engine flying 100 feet overhead! Given the geographic scope of new offshore drilling proposed by the Trump administration, such surveys could cover millions of acres of ocean in the coming years.
The impact of such noise pollution in the ocean can be devastating to marine life. At close range, seismic airgun blasts can cause injury or death to animals such as whales, dolphins, fish, turtles, and invertebrates. Seismic surveys also displace and cause harm, such as temporary hearing loss, to a broad range of marine mammals, fish, and invertebrate populations. Seismic blasting is a major threat to our nation’s fisheries, as well. Fish flee the blasting zone to escape the noise, including commercially important species, resulting in immediate losses to the communities who depend on healthy fisheries.
But the impacts of seismic blasting don’t just occur at close range. The sounds generated from seismic surveys travel hundreds or even thousands of miles and disrupt the behavior of a broad range of marine species. Sound travels efficiently underwater – much better than light for example - and many animals in the ocean depend on sound for communication, feeding, migration, and mating activities. If we continue to saturate the underwater world with noise (already a huge problem as depicted in the film Sonic Sea) we will harm both individual species as well as the health of entire marine ecosystems.
The Trump Administration Approves New Seismic Blasting in the Gulf
On May 7, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that it was authorizing six oil and gas companies to concurrently conduct seismic blasting in the Gulf of Mexico. The decision allows for the incidental “taking” of marine mammals by industry, which is otherwise prohibited under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. In plain English, this means that the oil companies receiving authorization are allowed to harass, injure, or kill a combined total of over 112,000 whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals as part of their seismic blasting activities in the Gulf.
The critically endangered Rice's Whale is one of the Gulf species that will be impacted by seismic blasting. Photo: NOAA
NOAA’s decision to approve new seismic blasting in the Gulf was made without any public meetings or agency comment periods. In January 2021, the Trump administration issued a final rule to allow for the taking of marine mammals as part of seismic blasting activities conducted by oil and gas industry operators. Surfrider Foundation had previously filed a lawsuit with our partners to legally challenge this rulemaking by NOAA. Unfortunately, this legal challenge was not successful, and in 2024 and 2026, NOAA issued updated rules to allow for even more harm to marine mammal populations. This rulemaking process ultimately enabled the Trump administration to proceed with the approval of exceedingly harmful seismic blasting in the Gulf.
Protecting our Ocean from Seismic Blasting and Offshore Drilling
The pathway to protecting ocean ecosystems and marine wildlife from seismic airgun blasting is to prohibit new offshore oil and gas development in U.S. waters. Given that seismic blasting is used by the industry to locate oil and gas deposits for new offshore drilling, we must take collective action to end this damaging practice. Achieving this will not only protect countless whales, dolphins, and other species of marine life, it will also protect our nation’s coastlines and communities from other offshore drilling hazards such as oil spills, onshore pollution, and the release of billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Surfrider is waging a national campaign to stop new oil and gas leasing in the federal offshore drilling plan. The Trump administration is currently proposing new offshore drilling for over 1.2 billion acres of U.S. ocean, including the waters off California, the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and even the Arctic Ocean, for new oil and gas leasing. The plan is stunning in scale and a looming threat to our marine ecosystems, coastal communities, businesses, and quality of life. In the coming weeks, the Trump administration will release the Proposed Program (2nd draft) and open a 90-day comment period before making a final decision later this year.
Surfrider is also supporting federal legislation to prohibit new offshore drilling and seismic airgun blasting in different regions of the country. These bills include the Coast Anti-Drilling Act HR 2881 / S. 1486 (East Coast), the West Coast Protection Act HR 2849 / S. 1432 (West Coast), and the Florida Coastal Protection Act HR 2673 (Florida). During our recent Coastal Recreation Hill Day event, Surfrider members met with over 100 congressional offices to urge Senate and House members to co-sponsor these important bills. You can make your voice heard by completing our action alert to urge Congress to oppose new offshore oil and gas development!
Please stay tuned to Surfrider channels for the latest updates and opportunities to take action!