On March 5, 2020, Rollcall reported on the politicization of a study by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study warned that using air guns to locate drilling sites in the Atlantic Ocean could have deleterious effects on the migration route and birthing sites of an endangered whale species and recommended measures to protect the species. According to the report in Rollcall, prior to publication of the study, it was edited by a “political team” at NOAA (whose membership is unclear), who altered the scientists recommendations, including by weakening the protections they had proposed. The report, incorporating the edits made by the NOAA political team, was published on November 28, 2018.
Scott Kraus, a former scientist at the New England Aquarium, told reporters that the edits were “anything but minor and at odds with the underlying science.” Rep. Jared Huffman of California, who is the chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, stated that the edits constitute “blatant scientific and environmental malpractice at the highest order.” A NOAA Fisheries spokesman John Ewald dismissed the criticism and said the edits were based on “[e]xtensive scientific, regulatory, stakeholder and public input.”