Free screening of Sonic Sea documentary

The Peninsula Environment Group and Save Our Coast are organising a free screening of Emmy Award-winning documentary Sonic Sea at the Everglades Country Club at 7pm on Tuesday, July 22.

The screening is part of a campaign to raise awareness about plans to explore for gas off the Coast using seismic testing with powerful sonic blasts.

Peninsula Environment Group xecretary Mr Mark Mann said: "Seismic testing is extremely harmful to marine life.

"It can cause severe harm, including deafness and even death, to marine animals such as whales, dolphins and turtles.

"The film Sonic Sea reveals the shocking effects of underwater noise such as seismic testing.

"And of course, if they find gas the next step is to build gas rigs and start extracting gas."

Mr Mann said that although the gas industry claims gas has lower greenhouse emissions than coal, this may not be true because of methane leaks during the extraction, transmission and processing of gas.

"Even if gas is slightly better than coal, gas is still a fossil fuel leading to dangerous global warming.

"We need to stop opening up new gas reserves and switch to zero-emissions energy such as wind and solar, which are now cheaper than gas anyway," Mr Mann said.

"We also have plenty of gas in Australia already, but most of it is exported.

"In fact, Australia is now the world's largest natural gas exporter."

As well as the movie, which lasts an hour, the evening will include a briefing about the exploration plans, and a discussion about how the local community can have a say on the issue.

"We believe most people don't want gas rigs off our beaches," Mr Mann said. "But unless we make our voices heard this is a very real prospect."

SOURCE:

Media release, 17 Jul 2019

Mark Mann, Peninsula Environment Group