TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A petition to stop the planned firing of loud airguns into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey was circulated by the conservation organization Clean Ocean Action (COA). The firing is planned by a team of geologist in effort to map ancient changes of coastline of the Eastern United States.
Using a map, the geologists hope to measure how sea levels have changed during the past 60 million years in response to dramatic natural climate changes, such as Ice Ages.
COA, however, see the act could endanger marine wild life and local fishermen and tourism. The organization also noted that the geologists' data could benefit the fossil fuel industry, according to the National Science Foundation Award Abstract for the airgun study.
A documentation related to the geologists study led by Gregory Mountain of Rutgers University shows that air guns blast sound levels will be of from 246 to 253 decibels which is approximately twice level of a jet plane engine at 100 feet. The blasts in Rutgers study would continue every few seconds, 24/7 for 30 days
Rutgers team have filed for permit for their action and promised that they will stop firing whenever they spot wildlife nearby. However, COA accused the team to misrepresenting their firing timing.
Several studies had previously documented the effect of loud sound to the whale behavior. One study published in Plus One earlier this year found that humpback whales dramatically reduced their singing when air guns were in use nearby. Back in 1986, biologists observed bowhead whales avoiding underwater air gun blasts that reached over 160 decibels in a study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
RINDU P HESTYA | DISCOVERY NEWS