
Clean Ocean Action’s Casey Shanley models the latest in environmental beachwear.
By SUE MORGAN
Piggybacking on the popularity of the dolphin pod that’s been in the Shrewsbury River since mid-June, Clean Ocean Action last week took aim at three proposals to create liquefied natural gas terminals off the Monmouth County coast.
With a private plane towing a “Help! Save the dolphins!” banner overhead, COA Executive Director Cindy Zipf and other speakers at the July 3 press conference on the Sea Bright boardwalk appealed to the public’s love of the frolicking marine mammals in an effort to sink the plans.
One proposal, by the Atlantic Sea Island Group, calls for a manmade island terminal to be built in the Atlantic Ocean 19 miles off east of Sea Bright for the ‘regasification’ of liquified natural gas. Two other companies have proposed similar operations off Asbury Park and Manasquan.
The proposals, as well as the unusual presence of some 15 to 20 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins swimming nearby, served as ammunition for Zipf and other speakers. COA, a consortium of about 125 organizations, claims construction of the island will “harass” some 1,000 dolphins and whales, and disrupt the lives of 700 such animals each year of operation.
Yes, the ocean and other waterways are cleaner than they were more than 25 years ago, when COA began its mission to end ocean dumping, Zipf acknowledged. However, until federal laws prohibiting the creation of LNG terminals and offshore drilling are on the books, some individual or corporation will always entertain the notion of industrializing the ocean for profits, she noted.
“People will always continue to find destructive things to do to the ocean,” she said.
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