Navy Sonar System Threatens Whales

[ramblin_dave]

The U.S. Navy wants to flood the world's oceans and coastal waters with sonar technology that deafens -- and kills -- whales and other marine mammals.

In response to an NRDC-led lawsuit, a federal judge ruled in August 2003 that the Navy's planned around-the-world deployment of a new high-intensity sonar system is illegal and could endanger whales, porpoises and fish. The judge barred the deployment and ordered the Navy to reduce the system's potential harm to marine mammals and fish by negotiating limits on its use with conservation groups. (See press release.) But to get around the ruling, the Navy is asking Congress for exemptions from environmental laws.

Around the globe, nations are testing and beginning to deploy "active sonar" technology, which uses extremely loud sound to detect submarines. The problem? Active sonar can injure and even kill marine mammals. It has been conclusively linked to the deaths of seven whales in the Bahamas in March 2000; that stranding is only one of a mounting number of similar events.

http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp

[demigoddess]

1. many people could have told you that the sonar is at fault

with the danger and sickness it does to whales and other sea creatures.
The idiots just would not listen to us. Anyone with common sense knew it. And again we bump up against that old idea that war is so important that we must risk ourselves rather than hinder it.