Seismic air guns commonly used in the search for undersea oil kill off far more zooplankton than once thought, according to a new study that raises questions about the effect of such seismic surveys on the health of ocean ecosystems.
Seismic air guns commonly used in the search for undersea oil kill off far more zooplankton than once thought, according to a new study that raises questions about the effect of such seismic surveys on the health of ocean ecosystems.
For the research, which was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists tested air gun signals in the ocean off Southern Tasmania and found a rise in mortality rate of 18 percent to between 40 and 60 percent. One reason was that the impacts were felt by the krill out to 1.2 kilometers, 100 times farther than the assumed range of 10 meters.
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Image: Northern krill (Credits: Øystein Paulsen via Wikimedia Commons)
