True Love Means You Listen

It's time for Canada to listen to science and stop seismic blasting that threatens endangered whales and other marine life!

This Valentine's Day, ask Fisheries Minister Jordan to give whales (and other marine life) a chance to find love.

The key to a lasting, loving relationship is often said to be the ability to really listen. A trait our federal government has lacked when it comes to ocean noise created by seismic blasting. A trait that the very survival of endangered whales depends on.

But maybe there is reason to hope for a change in Canada's approach to ocean noise. In October 2020, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced it was going to develop a new Ocean Noise Strategy for Canada. A draft of the strategy will be released this summer and the final strategy will be released in 2022. We know any strategy for ocean noise will need to tackle the most pervasive and noisiest activities in Canada's oceans: seismic blasting. Sierra Club submitted formal comments on the strategy, but now we need your help to make sure we get heard.

Please add your voice to call on the federal government to fix noise pollution and commit to calling it quits with seismic testing.

Message Subject *

LETTER TO MINISTER JORDAN *

Dear Minister Jordan and Federal Fisheries Critics,
 
 I am writing to ask you to include a ban on seismic in the new Ocean Noise Strategy for Canada.
 
 A scientific review published in the February 5th, 2021 edition of the journal Science indicates that ocean noise is a pervasive stressor to marine life, and that this threat needs to be included in how we manage marine ecosystems. The authors of this study also point out that this noise pollution can be stopped through removing or reducing noise at the source.
 
I am writing to encourage you to commit to listen to this timely scientific evidence and develop science-based limits to acceptable noise levels in our oceans as part of Canada's Ocean Noise Strategy. Special places, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, marine refuges, and the Arctic (where ocean life has adapted under the shelter of sea ice but is now more exposed to the intensity of ocean noise) warrant particular consideration in the strategy. I also believe that to be effective, our Ocean Noise Strategy must include a commitment to ban seismic testing. 
 
Because of the scale of seismic testing (hundreds of thousands of kilometres of testing can take place over weeks to months each year), the intensity of the noise created of seismic airguns, and the lack of accountability and regulation of this activity, dealing with seismic blasting needs to be a top priority for the Government of Canada as it develops its Ocean Noise Strategy. 
 
Research on the impacts of seismic testing on marine life show a range of impacts across the marine ecosystem, from plankton to whales. These impacts range from mortality at close range to avoidance of key habitats to internal organ damage and deafness to changes in or cessation of vocalizations used by marine species to communicate and navigate. Marine mammals which rely on sound to navigate must struggle amidst this barrage of noise to locate food, find mates, and look after their young.
 
Seismic testing has taken place while endangered blue whales were migrating in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2010. The failure to consult Indigenous People regarding seismic testing in Nunavut led the Supreme Court of Canada to quash National Energy Board approval of seismic testing there in 2017. In the summer of 2019, DFO's own researchers reported they could not hear marine mammals calling because seismic airguns drowned out their calls. For the endangered right whale, a migratory species with fewer than 400 individuals left on Earth, this pervasive blasting is an unacceptable threat.
 
In the US, concerns about the impacts of seismic testing on marine mammals, the need to protect coastal communities, and the climate change emergency have led to a halt to seismic blasting and oil development in the offshore – in stark contrast to Canada’s promotion of the expansion of the oil and gas industry off our East Coast. 
 
Finally, since seismic testing is carried out as a preface to oil drilling, we are creating ecological damage to further oil and gas development – a goal that is inconsistent with the Government of Canada’s climate commitments and the global necessity to stop expanding oil and gas production. 
 
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to receiving further information as the Ocean Noise Strategy is developed.
 
Sincerely,

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