Seismic Airguns
Overview
Seismic airgun blasting is one of the most harmful activities happening in our oceans today. This destructive practice puts whales, dolphins, fish, and other marine life at risk. Learn what seismic blasting is, how it works, and why we must act now to stop it before more harm is done.
How Seismic Airgun Blasting Works
Seismic airguns are used by the oil and gas industry to detect fossil fuel deposits beneath the seafloor. The airguns use pressurized air to fire powerful sound waves through the water column and thousands of feet into the seabed. The sound waves then travel back to the surface, providing information about potential fossil fuel reserves.
A typical oil and gas seismic survey involves a ship traveling across the ocean in successive parallel lines while towing as many as 96 seismic airguns. The blasts are deafening — the sound can travel up to 2,500 miles underwater — and repeat every 10 seconds for days, weeks, or even months at a time.
Which Species Are Impacted by Seismic Testing?
Noise from airguns can disturb, injure, or kill marine animals ranging from zooplankton, the base of the food web, to large whales.
Fish flee the blasting zone to escape the noise. Species that can’t escape, such as scallops or lobster, may sustain injuries that impair their ability to feed, mate, and elude predators.
Noise from seismic airguns can cause hearing loss, imperiling fish and marine mammals — including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale — that rely on sound for communicating, finding food, and avoiding predators.
Seismic Airguns’ Impact on Commercial Fisheries
Fact Sheet
Seismic Airgun Blasting for Oil and Gas: A Path to Ocean Destruction
The noise created by seismic airguns scatters fish, causing immediate losses to communities that depend on them. In areas exposed to seismic blasting, fishers reported a 45%–70% reduction in catch rates of Atlantic cod, haddock, and Pacific rockfish species, and a 22% reduction in the capture of western rock lobsters.
Potential Expansion of Seismic Blasting
In April 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its intention to establish a schedule of offshore oil and gas lease sales through a new National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program (Five-Year Plan) that could open more U.S. waters to seismic blasting and offshore drilling. Seismic blasting is the destructive first step of exploration.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How loud is seismic airgun blasting?
A: These airguns create one of the loudest sources of noise in the ocean, second only to military testing operations. Noise created by seismic surveys can cover areas of more than 115,000 square miles.
Q: Does seismic airgun blasting hurt whales?
A: Yes, whales are particularly at risk from hearing damage resulting from seismic blasts, given their reliance on sound to communicate and feed. Also, a seismic blast can kill zooplankton — the main food source of the North Atlantic right whale — up to three-quarters of a mile away.
Q: Are there any viable alternatives to seismic airguns?
A: High Resolution Geophysical (HRG) surveys are a viable alternative to deep-penetration seismic surveys. Often used by the offshore wind industry for project siting, HRG surveys target the seafloor and shallow subsurface, cover small areas, emit little energy, and operate at higher frequencies that are generally undetectable by marine mammals.
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