Photo: This is what seismic testing looks like

You can’t hear it in pictures, but this is what it looks like when air gun arrays explode underwater during seismic seabed surveying Sept. 3. The M/V Akademik Shatskiy, operated by Norwegian company TGS Nopec, is currently conducting a seismic survey off the northeast coast of Greenland. This is the same company which hopes to conduct seismic surveys in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait in summer 2016, a plan which many Inuit currently oppose because they worry about the impact of seismic blasting on sea mammals. The air guns emit explosive blasts which are louder than a jet engine and which penetrate the seafloor in seach of possible oil reservoirs. The Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise and a small crew are documenting the seismic ships which plan to complete 7,000 km of “survey lines” of the seabed in the Greenland Sea between 75 and 80 degrees north latitude. You can read more about their journey on nunatsiaqonline.ca at http://tinyurl.com/qzybzkj. (PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN ÅSLUND/GREENPEACE)