Whales in danger again as Trump dismantles fossil fuel safeguards

Will seismic blasts cause detriment to whales?

The search for offshore oil begins with a boom. Before the oil rigs arrive and the boring begins, operators need to fire intense seismic blasts repeatedly into the ocean to find oil deposits.

For decades, environmental rules that protected whales and other marine life in the United States from this cacophony have limited the location and frequency of these blasts – preventing oil companies from exploring, and therefore operating, off much of the nation’s coasts. Now those safeguards are being dismantled.