PROTESTERS descended on Nuns Beach on the weekend to call for a halt to seismic blasting in the Otway Basin.

The roughly 20 protesters unfurled a banner on Saturday morning and called for a Federal Government moratorium on seismic blasting off the coast of Victoria, including in the Otway Basin area.

The area has recently been the subject of interest to companies seeking to conduct seismic blasting tests in the search for oil and gas reserves.

In late September oil and gas company TGS withdrew its exploration proposal which would have seen seismic blasting undertaken within 45 kilometres off Portland.

Ocean Coastal Environment Action Network, who coordinated the protest, member Leigh Pettingill was one of the protestors.

“The seismic blasting that is proposed off the coast of Victoria is… significantly harmful to marine life,” she said.

“In the short term, seismic blasting can kill everything in the ocean in its path.

“That area will repopulate eventually, from other areas, but whether it’s going to be the same we don’t know and the populations of marine animals that are in our Southern Ocean could be quite detrimentally affected.

“Some of those are in very low numbers now and we don’t know how badly they’ll be affected and whether they'll be able to recover.”

The Portland local doesn’t buy the reasoning that such exploration is vital to ensure energy security.

“I would say that that we have enough gas in Victoria,” Mrs Pettingill said.

“We have enough gas in this country, if we stop selling it off overseas for not much money.”

“But I would also say that it's not the best thing for us to continue using gas and the Victorian Government are assisting people to get off gas and are working towards that. So, I don't think that the security issue flies.”

As for a message to the Federal Government, Mrs Pettingill said “Stop seismic blasting until you have evidence that it is not detrimental to marine life in the coastal environment.”