Reply #16: google link with all sorts of sources...

[leftchick]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=sonar+whale+deaths+navy

Example....

~snip~

Death knell

The latest in a series of mass strandings of whales around the world has implicated naval use of modern sonar equipment. Owen Dyer looks at how the military are trying to avoid responsibility

30th October 2002

The Guardian


Last month, 17 whales beached and died in the Canary Islands. Nobody knows for sure what killed them, but the government of the Canaries made an educated guess. Four mass whale strandings have occurred in the islands in the last 20 years, and each one of them coincided with NATO naval exercises.

This time was no exception. Neo Tapon 2002, a NATO exercise hosted by the Spanish government, had just left the area. NATO argues that there is no proof of a causal link. However, the local authorities politely have asked them not to return.

In the summer of 2000, 17 whales of various species beached in the Bahamas. Necropsies revealed bleeding in the ears and brains. Just an hour before the first whale was found, a squadron of American destroyers had passed close by.

~snip~

Sonar, the acoustic system that ships use to find submarines, is the prime suspect in all these cetacean deaths. Everyone is familiar with the pinging sound that punctuates old submarine movies. This is active sonar, a sonic equivalent of radar. The submarine hunter emits pings that bounce off the hull of the lurking sub and are picked up by microphones.

Sonar has changed dramatically in the last few years. Cold war technology relied on passive sonar, which emits no sound but merely listens for the engine noises of the underwater enemy. Passive sonar is no longer good enough, according to military planners, as modern subs are just too quiet. So navies are turning back to active systems, but these new sonars emit pings that are millions of times louder than the vintage models.

http://www.eurocbc.org/sonar_lfas_implicated_in_whale_deaths_30oct2002page1253.html