Atlantic Seismic Blasting and Offshore Drilling: Coastal Communities Fight Back

For more than four decades, Angela Sanfilippo has led the fight to protect New England’s fishing grounds from industrial development that could harm both commercial and recreational anglers. She first stood up for these waters in the 1970s at age 27 and has continued through multiple administrations—arguing policy under President Carter, taking her case to the first President Bush, working with President Clinton and contesting decisions under the second President Bush. Now 68, Sanfilippo is president of the Gloucester Fisherman’s Wives Association in Massachusetts and finds herself once again confronting a major shift in federal policy.

Sanfilippo describes the current conflict as a potential “war for the entire Eastern Seaboard,” a concern that arose when the Trump administration reversed the previous administration’s position on permitting offshore oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic. At the center of that reversal is seismic blasting, a survey technique energy companies use to locate underwater oil and gas deposits. Environmental scientists warn that seismic blasting produces intense underwater noise—louder than rock concerts, fireworks or rocket launches—which can frighten, disorient, injure, or even kill marine life and disrupt important ecosystems.

Seismic surveys are typically the first step toward setting up offshore drilling infrastructure. After surveys identify promising reservoirs, companies can proceed to install drilling rigs and other structures—an industry largely absent from the Atlantic for about half a century. For coastal communities that depend on fishing, tourism and marine recreation, the prospect of renewed drilling raises significant ecological, economic and safety concerns.

Those concerns prompted a coalition of environmental groups to sue the federal government after the administration issued seismic-blasting permits to five energy companies. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, names NOAA Fisheries—the National Marine Fisheries Service—arguing that the permit approvals violated federal animal-protection laws. In mid-January, attorneys general from ten Eastern Seaboard states joined the legal challenge, adding substantial state-level legal resources to the effort. The states involved include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and both North and South Carolina.

State officials stressed a shared priority: protecting coastal environments, economies and communities from the risks of offshore drilling. Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring summed up the concern by noting that drilling could jeopardize the Chesapeake Bay’s health and the region’s tourism, fishing and military operations. He emphasized that state leaders will use available legal tools to prevent risky drilling off their coasts.

The opposition goes beyond state governments. Aquariums, city and town leaders, fishermen’s organizations, and boating communities along the Atlantic have all voiced their objections. J.J. Bartlett, president of Fishing Partnership Support Services—a nonprofit serving the families of roughly 20,000 commercial fishermen in the Northeast—warns that seismic testing alone could harm at least 28 species in the North Atlantic, according to the New England fisheries council. Many of those species are commercially and recreationally important.

Bartlett outlined broader risks as operations progress from testing to construction and production: new structures at sea could force fishermen to travel farther and work in more hazardous conditions, complicate navigation and search-and-rescue efforts, and increase the likelihood of accidents. He also referenced the long-term psychological and social toll that catastrophic spills can inflict on fishing communities, noting that past incidents have caused spikes in depression, anxiety, divorce and post-traumatic stress disorder among affected families.

Public opposition has been widespread. Reports indicate that nearly every coastal governor south of Maine, along with the majority of coastal towns and cities, expressed strong reservations about the seismic-blasting plan. Local leaders and residents who rely on fisheries and marine recreation have rallied to protect their livelihoods, their communities and the marine environment.

Sanfilippo urges recreational boaters, anglers and all who care about the ocean to join the effort. “They think we’re not paying attention and that we won’t fight back,” she says. Her plea is clear: saving the ocean requires broad participation and persistent advocacy. With experienced advocates like Sanfilippo and coordinated legal action from states and environmental groups, coastal communities are striving to keep the Atlantic’s marine life, fishing grounds and shoreline economies safeguarded from the impacts of seismic blasting and future offshore drilling.

This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue.