05:47 PM ET 06/14/00
Navy Sonar May Have Killed Whales
By MICHELLE FAUL=
Associated Press Writer=
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Autopsies of whales that beached in
the Bahamas suggest a possible link between Navy sonar tests and
ear hemorrhages that disoriented the animals, a biologist hired by
the National Marine Fisheries Service said Wednesday.
Darlene Ketten, an expert on whale acoustics, said ``the
coincidence of the timing and the pattern of the stranding with the
presence of Navy sonars ... raises a red flag and I think that
there's reason for concern.''
But she warned: ``I'm still not ready to say the Navy did
that.''
Ketten, a marine biologist at Harvard Medical School and the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, spoke in a
telephone news conference in which the Fisheries Service released
initial findings.
Having previously questioned alleged links between whale deaths
and anti-submarine sonar tests, the Navy said Wednesday there was
``a priority need'' to examine the issue. It said it had created a
group of experts to help.
At least 16 whales of four different species beached themselves
on the islands of Abaco, Grand Bahamas and North Eleuthera on March
15 and 16. Seven died, including four Cuvier beaked whales and a
Blainville's dense beaked whale. The others were pushed back into
the sea.
``We hope to build upon what we will learn ... to ensure that it
does not happen again anywhere in the world,'' Cmdr. Greg Smith, a
Navy spokesman from the Pentagon, told The Associated Press.
Scientists' efforts to link whale beachings to sonar have been
frustrated because corpses were too decomposed to provide
conclusive evidence. They included the 1996 beachings of 12 Cuvier
beaked whales in the Ionian Sea during NATO anti-submarine
exercises.
But in March, some of the 16 whales beached in front of the
Abaco home of marine biologist Ken Balcomb, research director of
the Washington-based Center for Whale Research. Balcomb's swift
action preserved the corpses.
The whales suffered minor to severe hemorrhages in or around the
ears, possibly caused by ``a distant explosion or an intense
acoustic event,'' said the Fisheries Service, a Commerce Department
agency concerned with the conservation and management of living
marine resources.
Roger Gentry, coordinator of the service's acoustics team, said
investigators hadn't ruled out underwater landslides that could
emit up to 230 decibels of sound.
Ketten said she might have more conclusive evidence once the
Navy provides a detailed map of its activities, expected in July,
and she completes the autopsy studies, which could take 10 months.
Smith said the U.S. ships were transmitting signals from
hull-mounted sonars that reached around 235 decibels.
``This is the same sonar we have used for decades, on some U.S.
Navy ships and many navies' warships are transmitting somewhere in
the world every day,'' he said.
The Navy promised to devote more money to researching beaked
whales, mysterious mammals that dwell in deep waters. The Cuvier
species is believed to be the deepest-diving mammal, reaching
depths of 6,000 feet.
Critics want to stop Navy development of a new sonar, called Low
Frequency Active sonar, that transmits pulses so loud they can
match the roar of a rocket launch.
The Navy says it needs the system to detect ``quiet,
diesel-electric submarines operated by unfriendly nations and
competitors.''
___
On the Net:
Fisheries service: http://www.nmfs.gov/
U.S. Navy:http://www.navy.mil
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: http://www.whoi.edu/home/
Environmental article:
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/sum2000/eia_sum2000immp7.html
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