Shot for The New York Times science desk. A story about the horrendous effects of ocean noise on sea life. The current U.S. administration is rolling back three decades of environmental policy on seismic air gun oil exploitation on the entire eastern sea board leaving scientist beside themselves at the casual acceptance of the decimation of sea life in the hunt for oil...which will still further harm the environment if found. A project close to my, and probably almost everyones on the pacific north wests heart, as we struggle to maintain a suffering local cetacean population in the face of the terrific amount of ocean noise we already produce and that without anything close to sonic boom exploration. Port of Vancouver has implemented a Marine protection initiative called ECHO that asks ships to slow down while on inside waters, therefore significantly reducing the ocean noise that disturbs almost every living creature below the sea.
