- In the space of just two days, 16 whales mysteriously
beached themselves in the Bahamas. Six of the creatures died, their ears
and brains bleeding and crushed from a mysterious source of
pressure.
-
- That was in March 2000.
-
- Four months ago the U.S. Navy admitted that the pressure
came from huge blasts of underwater sound it had deployed during
surveillance
exercises.
-
- Now the Navy wants to launch a five-year program using
similar but less powerful equipment -- so-called low frequency active sonar
-- possibly off the California coast. The Navy sonar ships would operate
throughout 80 percent of the world's oceans, according to the
proposal.
-
- The unprecedented admission of the Navy's role in the
death of the whales has lent validity to environmentalists' longstanding
concerns about sonar's threat to marine mammals.
-
- "The entire Bahamas incident raises a red flag about
the operation of active sonar and other intense sound sources," said
Michael Jasny, senior policy analyst with the National Resources Defense
Council.
-
- The Navy has been using this controversial brand of
antisubmarine
warfare for years, mostly in secret. Its proposal for the new program marks
the first time it is seeking permission from another government agency
-- a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. A decision is
expected
soon, possibly later this month.
-
- The Navy insists the sonar deployments are crucial to
the defense of the country.
-
- "The low frequency active sonar system is much more
able to listen to quiet submarines (owned) by nations not friendly to
us,"
said Lt. Commander Pauline Storum, a Navy spokeswoman.
-
- The Navy's Web site says there are 21 nations that
operate
potentially hostile submarines, but Storum declined to name any
nations.
-
- Navy ships would tow a string of 18 bathtub-sized
speakers,
called hydrophones, that emit great bursts of sound at 215 decibels. Above
ground, the level of sound is equivalent to standing close to an exploding
rocket, according to environmentalists.
-
- Those intense pulses travel vast distances and bounce
off vessels and other objects, returning a signal read by a couple of
hundred
underwater microphones trailing from the ship's stern.
-
- The Navy also has a permit application pending before
the California Coastal Commission, which has expressed concern about the
sonar's threat to marine life in the three-mile state coastal zone, said
Mark Delaplaine, federal consistency supervisor for the Coastal
Commission.
-
- "It's a fuzzy area, but we think (the Commission)
has jurisdiction even farther out" into the ocean, Delaplaine
said.
-
- Besides whales, environmentalists say the massive sounds
can harm and even kill seals, sea lions, sea turtles, dolphins and
fish.
-
- It is "a killer technology that has the potential
of deafening every marine mammal in the ocean," according to Earth
Island Institute.
-
- For several years, whale strandings corresponded with
nearby sonar testing in spots around the globe, including a few suspicious
incidents off the Bay Area coast.
-
- But the Navy -- and other countries that have used the
active sonar technology -- denied any connection. Until last year, that
is.
-
- In December the Navy released a report admitting that
sonar blasts in the Bahamas in March 2000 led 16 whales to beach
themselves.
-
- Six whales -- five Cuvier's beaked whales and one
Blainville's
beaked whale -- died. Scientists from the Navy and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration concluded the pressure from the sonar blasts
pierced the mammal's ears and caused them to hemorrhage.
-
- The whales suffered other internal injuries as
well.
-
- In a report to the California Coastal Commission, the
Navy said the technology may lead to the deaths of a small amount of marine
mammals, but overall the impacts would be negligible.
-
- The Navy's proposal says it will respect a 12-mile
coastal
buffer zone and will avoid other sensitive areas.
-
- The Navy has promised it will not operate off the
California
coast unless it has a permit, Delaplaine said.
-
- Palmer said the environmental community expects the NMFS
to grant the Navy a permit. The question, Palmer explained, is how much
freedom or restrictions will the agency give the Navy.
-
- Palmer and Delaplaine are concerned about a loophole
allowing the Navy to breach the coastal safety zone during times of war
or heightened national security. That arguably could apply now, they
said.
-
- If NMFS approves the program, Palmer said, environmental
organizations are ready to sue under the Endangered Species Act, Marine
Mammal Protection Act and National Environmental Policy Act.
-
- The Navy says its sonar ships will try to avoid whales
to make sure they aren't exposed to dangerous sound levels. But it admits
there is some potential for "harassment" and death.
-
- Critics of the Navy sonar counter that the Navy can just
as easily ferret out hostile subs with its passive sonar technology, which
basically consists of powerful microphones that record far-off sounds in
the ocean.
-
- They stress that just as the Navy uses sound to navigate
the ocean and learn more about it, so do sea creatures. In fact, hearing
is their keenest and most vital sense. As such, environmentalists say the
sonar could be as debilitating to sea creatures as blinding a human
being.
-
- "Imagine being told to drive down to the soccer
field and pick up your kid, and to stop at the grocery store on your way
back, all the while blinded by a brilliant strobe light," the Earth
Island Journal wrote in its newsletter.
-
- But others in the scientific community are not so damning
of the sonar.
-
- Doreen Moser, assistant director of education at the
Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, said while there is reason for concern,
the effects of sound on marine mammals and fish are not clear, and more
research is necessary.
-
- "You have animals that live in a completely
different
environment than us. We have difficulty measuring sound in the ocean,"
Moser said. "One person likes loud, head-banging music, and another
person hates it."
-
- "The low frequency sonar signal is one of the
loudest
sounds produced by humans under water," Palmer said.
-
- *********
-
- Our thanks to the California Coastal Commission, the
NRDC and Earth Island Institute for presenting this information so
articulately
to the press. Also, thanks to Mark Palmer of EII for providing a copy
of the text. His contact information is contained below.
-
- Best regards,
- Cheryl A. Magill
- Stop LFAS Worldwide!
- http://www.stoplfas.net
-
- Mark J. Palmer
- Assistant Director
- International Marine Mammal Project
- Director
- Wildlife Alive
- Earth Island Institute
- 300 Broadway, Suite 28
- San Francisco, CA 94133
-
- (415) 788-3666 x139
- (415) 788-7324 (fax)
-
- mpalmer@mother.com
-
- www.earthisland.org
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