January 29, 2015 — The swath of Atlantic Ocean the Obama administration may open to oil and gas exploration is an ecologically diverse network of soft-bottom shelves and rocky canyons that includes some of most dynamic and mysterious marine systems on Earth.
The 500-mile-long (805-kilometer) region stretching from Virginia to Georgia hosts 700 fish species, five types of sea turtles, migrating humpbacks, and endangered fin whales and right whales with sensitive acoustic systems. Seabirds by the millions float along the Gulf Stream as it carries warm water and nutrients north.
Beyond the continental shelf, where the seafloor slopes down into the abyss, the bottom of the ocean is cut by canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon that are visited by tilefish and home to spindly-legged crabs. Newly discovered deep-sea coral gardens host so many bizarre creatures that one scientist said it's like "Dr. Seuss went crazy down there."
Yet very little is known about how much oil and gas there is—or just how big a threat extracting the resources might pose.