Obama OKs sonic cannons in hunt for oil, gas deposits

The U.S. Eastern Seaboard is being opened to offshore oil and gas exploration for the first time in decades with the Obama administration's approval Friday of sonic cannons that can pinpoint energy deposits deep beneath the ocean floor.

The decision dismays environmentalists worried about the immediate impact of the sonic cannons, which shoot sound waves 100 times louder than a jet engine through waters shared by whales and turtles.

Saving endangered species was their best hope of extending a ban against offshore drilling off the U.S. Atlantic coast.