“Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that blasting air guns in an area where a rare whale migrates and gives birth could push it closer to extinction. But those findings conflicted with the Trump administration’s push for drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, so the scientists were ordered to change their official conclusions so the agency could permit air guns to sound off in the whales’ territory.
Documents obtained by CQ Roll Call show that science-based measures to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale from seismic surveys in the Atlantic Ocean were watered down after being vetted by NOAA’s ‘political team.’
There is ‘more and more pressure on NOAA scientists to come up with answers that please political leadership.'”
