Pierce Brosnan has narrated a video to call attention to the plight of the last 284 beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet. According to Brosnan, the actor and ocean activist, and also NRDC, the Apache Alaska Corporation is about to launch a seismic airgun attack that could push the white whales over the brink, into extinction.
The explosive noise of airguns used to explore for oil and gas can deafen, injure and even kill whales.
-Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
According to NRDC, the oil exploration company is planning to launch an “acoustic onslaught in the beluga’s only home in the world” and apparently the Obama Administration has given Apache Alaska Oil the greenlight to go forward. The company, says Brosnan in the video, will use devices that create loud air blasts to explore for oil and gas – blasts that will occur every ten seconds, perhaps for months on end. At a distance, Brosnan says, the blasts can cause the whales to abandon their habitat and stop eating. At close range, they can cause deafness, even death.
“Don’t let the belugas go silent. Help protect them before time runs out.”
-Pierce Brosnan
Watch Pierce Brosnan’s video and then visit this NRDC website to tell the Obama Administration to stop the Apache Alaska Corporation from launching an airgun attack on belugas. View the latest information from NRDC about this attack on belugas
While I am a supporter of oil exploration and the attempt to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil, I think that it needs to be somewhat in balance with nature. There needs to be a comprimise. We have developed all sorts of technolgy to do things that were once impossible. Perhaps it is time to find alternate ways to accomplish the same results in this instance. If there is a danger to the marine life because of this procedure then maybe it is time to research and develop an alternate method. Or, baring new technology, is there a more oportune time to fire the guns that will do less damage to the marine population? Can procedure be modified to reduce or mitigate the damage?