South Africa’s Wild Coast is vitally important to whales, dolphins and countless other marine life, and it’s under threat! Oil and gas giant Shell is about to start oil and gas exploration in the area – with potentially disastrous effects on the region’s marine life. Sea creatures face injury and possible death if we do not stop it. Please, help us take emergency court action and protect the Wild Coast!

Shell is looking for oil and gas deposits deep beneath the ocean floor. A seismic vessel will drag a massive array of 48 air guns across more than 2,300 square miles (6,000 square kilometers) of ocean, firing powerful shockwaves every ten seconds, day and night, for FIVE MONTHS to produce images of any deposits. The impact on marine life will be devastating. We cannot allow this survey to go ahead!

Seismic blasts can cause tissue damage, embolisms, hearing loss and even death!

An enormous number of marine creatures depend on sound for their survival. Communicating, locating prey, social bonding, breeding, navigating and avoiding predators all depend on sound. But seismic booms reach over 200 decibels, which is louder than a rocket launch and could cause stress, injury and death in whales, dolphins, seals, fish and even small crabs and shellfish on the ocean floor.

Distressed by the intense, ongoing noise, dolphin and whale calves can become separated from their mothers and starve to death. The noise from these blasts can travel over 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) and will happen every ten seconds for five months. The scale and intensity of the auditory onslaught is almost inconceivable.

We cannot allow this to be the future of our oceans. Death, pollution and destruction in the pursuit of fossil fuels when we are in the age of renewable energy is unacceptable! We must do everything we can to stop this from happening! Please donate generously today.

This could spell the end for large populations of ocean predators and mammals!

Blasts from the air guns can kill massive clouds of zooplankton and krill – the building blocks of the ocean’s food chains. They have been recorded dying almost a mile away from air gun operations, and researchers have recorded their abundance dropping by two-thirds in seismic study areas! These are the primary food source of whales and many species of fish! If this continues, large populations of these creatures will simply no longer be viable.

Studies have shown that some whales are so sensitive to noise that in frantic efforts to escape these air gun blasts, they surface too quickly and die of decompression sickness. We will do everything in our power to stop this from happening, but we can’t do it without you. Please, donate today.