The oil and gas industry uses arrays of airguns which release intense impulses of compressed air into the water about once every 10 to 12 seconds. These seismic surveys have a staggering environmental footprint. A large seismic array can produce sounds with pressures higher than those of virtually any other man-made source besides explosives. The director of Cornell's Bioacoustics Research Program once described these surveys as possibly "the most severe acoustic insult to the marine environment." The new and destructive testing

will not prevent an earthquake nor a tsunami.

  Tests would last 24 hours for 33 days and would kill or injure marine mammals (some of them endangered species), including whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and otters. A deaf marine mammal is a dead one as this is the sense they rely on to communicate, navigate and find food. Seabirds and other species such as endangered sea turtles, could be affected as well, with little or no way of mitigating the impacts. Fishermen are concerned about the detrimental effects on their livelihood.  

  See the estimated numbers of animals from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the right-hand column that could be considered "take." Take could mean anything from harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Harm is defined by NMFS to include significant habitat modification or degradation that results in death or injury to listed species by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding, or sheltering. Incidental take is defined as take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out of an otherwise lawful activity. Many of the animals are endangered species in ostensibly protected areas such as MPAs (Marine Protected Areas) where animals are supposed to be legally protected.

  There is no way of knowing if an impact means an animal is killed outright or, in the case of a whale, dolphin or porpoise, dies later from hearing loss or environment impact. It is feared that testing could seriously damage a small population of harbor porpoises in the Morro Bay area. This species is most sensitive to loud man-made sound and is the mammal most vulnerable to habitat abandonment and hearing loss. 

  Nuclear energy, with its dangerous weak spots, should be phased out. Japan announced in September 2012 that it intends to stop using nuclear power by the 2030s. This is a major shift from goals that were set prior to the Fukushima disaster.
  The United States needs to also move away from these dangerous plants and not allow devastating tests to occur off of California's Central Coast.