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Take Action Today!
The Southern Sea (the ocean between Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia) is at risk of becoming a giant gas field. We need to protect this incredible coastline permanently from fossil fuel exploitation.
Send a letter to your local Federal Member of Parliament, calling on them to stop all new oil & gas exploration in the Southern Sea and protect this wild and beautiful ocean for good.
Want to take an additional action? Sign the Citizens Protection Declaration petition in solidarity with First Nations campaigners, SOPEC
Sign The Petition
Want to do something more? Sign the Citizens Protection Declaration to stand in solidarity with First Nations communities asserting their care for Sea Country.
The Issue
Did you know the pristine stretch of ocean from Tasmania all the way to South Australia (including the beautiful Great Ocean Road) is at risk of becoming a giant gas field?!
The incredible Southern Sea spanning from Tasmania to South Australia coastlines is raw, wild and abundant in incredible marine life - including endangered blue whales, dolphins, fur seals and little penguins!
Right now, a huge area of this ocean is under threat by seismic blasting. Seismic blasting is the damaging first step in the search for fossil fuels. Multinational corporations called TGS and SLB want to blast an enormous 4.5 million hectares – in an area extending from Tasmania, along Victoria’s coastline, and all the way to South Australia. TGS and SLB have applied to blast the region for 400 days. This damaging plan puts unique and globally significant areas under threat, including the 12 Apostles, King Island and the Great Southern Reef. The blasting proposal includes two Marine Protected Areas, the Bonney Upwelling, and protected whale sanctuaries. On top of this, the area is exposed to some of the biggest swells on the planet – straight from the Southern Ocean. This means that blasting in this area is especially dangerous!
What's At Risk
Seismic blasting is not just devastating for the ocean - it has a dangerous purpose: it's the first step in drilling for oil & gas in the ocean (also called offshore drilling). Offshore drilling is dangerous, dirty and drives the climate crisis. We know that very smart scientists all over the world are saying we cannot afford to pull out any new fossil fuels - if this project goes ahead not only will it risk this incredible coastline, but also our entire planet when these fossil fuels are later burned.
There are three major impacts that seismic blasting has on the ocean…
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Seismic blasts displace, injure and kill marine life. The blasts kill zooplankton over a kilometer away, and damage the sensory organs of marine animals, especially whales and dolphins who rely on hearing for survival. TGS and SLB want to blast critical habitat for whales, including protected sanctuaries for blue whales, southern right whales, and their calves.
The proposal blasting area threatens both the offshore and coastal environment and includes two Commonwealth Marine Parks, containing globally significant values, and rare and unique species.
The blasting area is exposed to some of the biggest swells on the planet - straight from the Southern Ocean. These conditions vastly increase the risk of a devastating oil spill, threatening Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and even NSW.
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The Great Southern Reef contributes more than $10 billion per year to Australia’s economy. Seismic blasting directly impacts the reef ecosystem and the fishing industries that rely on it, putting livelihoods at risk.
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Seismic blasting is the first step in offshore oil and gas exploration. The next step is drilling, and extraction then finally, it gets burned - polluting the air with dangerous and dirty fossil fuel, methane.
Scientists have made it clear: fossil fuels are the cause of the climate crisis, and all new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with a liveable future - we cannot afford the climate wrecking impact that new gas fields will have on our planet. As the world’s second largest gas exporter, Australia has a responsibility to stop fuelling global emissions which means we cannot allow any new fossil fuel projects.
What’s being done to stop this?
Blasting for oil & gas in the Southern Ocean is a disaster waiting to happen, but communities have the power to make sure this place is permanently protected from outrageous plans for gas fields.
We need to stop all new oil & gas projects in the Southern Sea and permanently protect this wild and beautiful ocean from fossil fuel exploitation.
Our ocean loving friends at Surfrider Foundation Australia are fighting to protect the ocean, ecosystems, and community threatened by TGS and SLB’s seismic blasting proposal. We strongly support Surfrider Australia and join them in opposing the search for more fossil fuels in these waters and the expansion of the fossil fuel industry as a whole.
Surfrider Foundation Australia are calling for the permanent protection of Australia’s south-eastern waters from fossil fuel exploration, and an immediate end to the proposed expansion of the offshore fossil fuel industry.
Australia could show the world how it’s done, becoming world leaders in climate action by creating the world's first climate ocean reserve in the Southern Sea - protecting the place from fossil fuel exploitation, and permanently protecting this unique and diverse wilderness for future generations and the health of the planet.
We need your help to get this plan into action - please join our partners Surfrider Foundation to take action and protect the Southern Sea. You can help by …
● Sending a message to your MP (on the form above)
● Sign the petition in solidarity with First Nations campaigners
● Become a member of Surfrider Foundation Australia
● Follow Surfrider on instagram to keep up to date with latest actions, paddle outs, events, and film screenings near you!
OUR FILM
Last year, we supported our partners at Surfrider Foundation Australia to produce a film that would help tell the story of seismic blasting in the Southern Sea. The film was produced by Surfrider’s Drew Mcpherson and directed by legendary director and ecologist Matty Hannon. It premiered in Hobart in October last year and then we spent the next 2 months touring it with Surfrider and a cool guy called Roly from Emu Parade who served icecream out of his veggie & solar powered fire truck & trailer set up and traded icecream for activism!
The film screened in 4 states and 16 events, with most screenings sold out. The film is beautiful, cinematic and captures the raw wildness of the southern sea perfectly. We’d love you to come watch it at a screening in your town or city. Follow Surfrider on Instagram to stay up to date with the next screening & dates near year!
OUR PARTNERS
Surfrider Foundation Australia are our long time partners in the fight to stop fossil fuels from destroying our favourite places. Surfrider Foundation Australia is a registered not for profit sea-roots organisation dedicated to the protection of Australia’s waves and beaches through conservation, activism, research and education. You can find out more about our friends here.
FAQs
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Seismic surveying (also called ‘seismic blasting’) is the first step in drilling for oil & gas. Explosive shock waves twice as loud as the sound of a jet plane taking off are blasted into the ocean every few seconds, for 24 hours a day, weeks and months on end. These blasts are known to injure and kill marine species, either by the impact of the blasts themselves or by displacing species from traditional migration, feeding and birthing routes.
This plan by giant corporations TGS and SLB to seismic blast the southern sea may just be the largest seismic survey for oil and gas in history, covering more than 4.5 million hectares of marine environment between Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Seismic blasting has a disastrous impact on marine life. If oil & gas is found, big fossil fuel companies will further threaten these oceans by drilling for oil & gas under the sea.
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Drilling for gas in our wild southern sea is a disaster just waiting to happen. Offshore gas rigs and heaving 20 foot monster swells charging in from the south west are a dangerous combination. It happened in the Gulf of Mexico in a calm gulf - imagine the disaster that could unfold if we see this in the southern sea. We’ve already seen it happen in Australia too and it had devastating consequences for our marine environment.
The Southern Sea is a wild place, with violent storms and strong winds and waves. The geography is remote, unmonitored, largely unpopulated and lacks physical infrastructure to respond effectively to an oil spill. Fossil fuel corporations are mainly looking for gas, but where there’s gas there’s oil. A spill could leak millions of barrels of oil into the Southern Sea - devastating ecosystems, marine life, and local communities jobs like fishing and tourism that rely on the health of this ocean.
Not to mention the destructive impacts these gas corporations are having on the climate crisis - we cannot afford any new fossil fuels to be drilled out of the ground. At this time in history we must be taking urgent, powerful action to address the climate and biodiversity crises we face - not continuing expansion of the fossil fuel corporations fuelling the climate crisis while putting our oceans, unique biodiversity and local communities at risk.
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At Ben & Jerry’s, we understand that as a for-profit ice cream company, we’re part of the problem, which is why we’ve committed ourselves to be a catalyst for solutions, both within our business and at the economy-wide policy level. We’ve committed to reduce the full lifecycle emissions of our company, which includes our own emissions and our supply chain. You can read more about what we are doing at Ben & Jerry’s, including our science-based targets here.
A big part of this is the carbon tax we charge ourselves - instead of ‘offsetting’ the carbon we create, we inset this by using the money we have taxed ourselves to use technology and nature together to create climate solutions that are long term and that we can share with the wider business community, rather than just offsetting and making our carbon someone else’s problem.
We are really proud of everything we have been doing and we know there is still a way to go, but we will continue working on it. You can find out more of the nitty, gritty details about our environmental work (and social mission work too!) in our latest social & environmental impact report here.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Southern Sea Country - land, sea & sky. We also acknowledge First Nations Traditional Owners, leaders past and present of the lands we are all on and pay respects to their continuing connection to Country. We thank Elders and leaders in all communities for the fight that has been fought and the fight that continues today to protect Country.