Cornell Chronicle

Fitzpatrick says:

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said its decision three years ago not to list sage-grouse as endangered was made based on the best available science.

"That evidence led to the designation 10 million acres of habitat in Sagebrush Focal Areas that were deemed to be crucial to the species’ survival, and to keeping it from becoming endangered. It also designated no surface occupancy buffers near leks that are critical zones of reproduction.

“Today’s announcement is not based on any new science that changes the picture of what biologists regard as absolutely necessary to keep sage-grouse off the Endangered Species list. The flexibility to roll back science-based protections for sage-grouse habitats and leks is the flexibility to set back the sage-grouse population.

“The beauty of the 2015 Sage-Grouse Plans were their comprehensive, landscape-scale strategy. The proposed revisions break that strategy up into bits, rendering individual sage-grouse breeding areas vulnerable to the influence of short-term gain for development. “The 2015 Sage-Grouse Plans were a hard-earned compromise after a decade of cooperative conservation work and unprecedented coalitions among state and federal agencies, conservationists, energy companies, and private ranchers. The Department of Interior is disregarding its own best available science at the peril of reopening a contentious debate that will serve nobody’s best interests.”

Rice says:

“Sound is a critical aspect of the life history of many, if not most, marine organisms, and sounds from the proposed seismic surveys could have profound effects on their behavior and ecology. Sounds generated by these seismic surveys will propagate hundreds to potentially thousands of miles underwater. They fall within the key hearing ranges of many marine species.

“The proposed survey area coincides with the habitat of many whale and fish species, all of which could be impacted by this survey. The proposed survey area overlaps with the critical habitat of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, and these sounds may further threaten the survivorship of the entire species.

“The rationale of the IHA is not based on the best available science, and there have been many recent studies which highlight the further potential harm of seismic surveys to marine life.”

Rice says:

"From an environmental side of things, this is an encouraging development.  I’ve been active in briefing government officials on impacts of ocean noise on marine life, and explaining possible impacts that oil and gas exploration and extraction would have if the Atlantic coast were opened up for drilling.  In terms of technical details, drilling itself is only part of the problem. Much of the ocean noise impacts to marine life results from exploring for subsea oil deposits through the use of seismic airgun surveys (and this happens to identify where to drill). These airgun surveys are extremely loud, last for months, and travel over 500 km (we’ve published work on this in the Gulf of Mexico in 2016). These sounds from airguns overlap with the frequency range of peak hearing sensitivity in many whales and fish, and may lead to individual- and population-level impacts. 

"An interesting legal question that will emerge is that because these oil exploration sounds travel such far distances, they will likely cross state waters. It will be interesting to see what Florida is legally able to do should oil exploration be permitted in Georgia or the Carolinas, where these sounds impact Florida’s marine life. In addition to its reefs and subtropical marine ecosystems, the northern Atlantic coast of Florida is a critical habitat area for North Atlantic right whales, which come down to Florida to calve in the winters. The fact that Florida has banned this activity is good news for the ocean, though additional noise sources threatening Florida marine life will remain."

Farnsworth says:

“Although we have much to learn about how birds and hurricanes interact, we see two primary patterns: storms capture, or ‘entrain,’ birds in their circulations and transport them far from their points of origin; and birds moving near these storms shelter in place until favorable weather arrives. The former is especially true for seabirds, frequently appearing far inland from their ocean haunts in the wake of storms; the latter is true for many songbirds traveling over land, migrating en masse when favorable post-storm conditions facilitate such movements.

“Most migrating birds in and near the path of Hurricane Michael, a storm that intensified to a major hurricane very rapidly, will shelter in place. And when favorable weather conditions typical of such a storm’s passage arrive, including clear skies and winds blowing from the north and west, mass movements of these birds will be apparent, especially on radar, across the Southeastern U.S. Note that where and when the storm passes, seabirds are likely to appear far from the ocean in inland bodies of water like reservoirs and rivers. Please visit birdcast.info for live updates, forecast and analysis.”