Signs of the end times: the devil's flatulence?

It's a highly partisan source and I can't trace it to any more credible origin, but:

According to U.S. maritime industry sources, tanker captains are reporting an increase in onboard alarms from hazard sensors designed to detect hydrocarbon gas leaks and, specifically, methane leaks. However, the leaks are not emanating from cargo holds or pump rooms but from continental shelves venting increasing amounts of trapped methane into the atmosphere. With rising ocean temperatures, methane is increasingly escaping from deep ocean floors. Methane is also 21 more times capable of trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

In fact, one of the major sources for increased methane venting is the Hudson Submarine Canyon, which extends 400 miles into the Atlantic from the New York-New Jersey harbor. Another location experiencing increased venting is the Santa Barbara Channel on the California coast.

Source: Wayne Madsen Report - http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Well now, if methane clathrates are venting, we're in for a fun time.  Along with methane released by melting permafrost, this is generally considered to be one of the environmental big scaries, the sort of thing that could radically accelerate climate change toward or over a "tipping point" to an atmosphere that's very much more hostile than just a few degrees of heat and some big fat twisters.  Are we witnessing the inital rumbles of the Big Burp?