How is Navy sonar affecting whales?

TOO LOUD: Powerful underwater sonar can harm sound-sensitive marine life. (Photo: Natura Paparazzo/Flickr)

Q. I’ve heard that whales are stranding themselves on beaches because of Navy sonar. How does sound affect marine life and what is the Navy doing to keep the whales safe?

 

A. You know the ringing you get in your ears after you hear your favorite death metal band play in concert? Well, that’s kind of what it’s like for marine animals when they’re exposed to sonar waves. Only, for them it’s much, much worse. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, powerful underwater sounds produced by sonar can put out sounds of more than 200 decibels, a level that spreads sound across the ocean and severely harms sound sensitive marine life like whales.

 

“It’s like when workers in a high noise environment become deafened after a sudden high level of sound,” says Ken Balcomb, senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research, an organization that studies sonar’s effects on whales. Often, the sound is so loud that the mammals end up beaching themselves in an attempt to get away from the noise, an extreme tactic that usually results in death. According to the NRDC, sonar has caused several mass strandings in the Canary Islands, Greece, Madeira, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii and other sites around the globe.

 

Though environmental groups have successfully pushed for stricter control of military sonar, the Navy is pushing back. It appealed a recent decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that states have no right to limit naval operations and that training exercises using sonar “produced no evidence of sonar-related harm to any marine mammal.” Meanwhile, environmental groups say that environmental laws should apply to everybody, and that though the president can make an exception in a national emergency, naval operations and practices should be subject to the law, no questions asked. The high court is currently hearing arguments and expects to make a decision soon.

 

Story by Jessica A. Knoblauch. This article originally appeared in Plenty in October 2008. This story was added to MNN.com in July 2009.

 

Copyright Environ Press 2008