Off Topic --but I couldn't resist....
LFA Sonar Kills AGAIN:
Whales and dolphins beached in Australia
Associated Press
Tuesday November 30, 2004
The Guardian
More than 120 whales and dolphins died after swimming on to beaches on two southern Australian islands, where rescue teams were yesterday desperately trying to prevent others becoming stranded.
Some 97 animals - 72 pilot whales and 25 bottlenose dolphins - died after beaching on Sunday on King Island between the Australian mainland and the south-east island state of Tasmania.
On Maria Island, 450 kilometres (280 miles) away, about 25 dead pilot whales were beached, according to whale rescue expert Shane Hunniford.
Two dozen more were stranded on the island but appeared to be "reasonably fit and healthy", he said.
More than 30 rescuers dragged eight whales - each about four metres (13 feet) long and weighing one tonne - into deep water by late afternoon.
Wildlife officers have worked side by side with local volunteers to rescue the mammals.
Marine biologists will take samples from the dead whales and examine weather patterns in a bid to explain the phenomenon.
The beachings come a year after 110 pilot whales and 10 bottlenose dolphins died when they were stranded on Tasmania's remote west coast. Scientists at the time said a predator, such as a killer whale, may have driven the animals to their deaths.
Although individual strandings in Australia are not rare, mass strandings are.
guardian.co.uk
06/13/03
NRDC Goes to Court to Fight the Military over Dolphins and Whales
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is taking the Bush Administration to Federal Court on June 30th, 2003. At issue is the survival of thousands of whales and dolphins.
This long-awaited courtroom battle is the culmination of an eight-year campaign by NRDC to stop the U.S. Navy from illegally deploying its Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system -- a new technology that blasts ocean habitats with noise so intense it can maim, deafen and even kill marine mammals.
What's at stake? Consider: last year, the Bush administration issued the Navy a permit to deploy LFA sonar over 75 percent of the world's oceans and to harass or injure up to 12 percent of every single marine mammal species found anywhere in this vast expanse of ocean!
But before that disaster could unfold, the NRDC went to court last fall and won a dramatic eleventh-hour reprieve for thousands of whales and dolphins. A federal judge blocked global deployment of the sonar system until a full trial could be held and all the evidence heard.
That all-important proceeding will begin on June 30th. It will determine whether this dangerous technology is finally unleashed upon our planet's oceans -- or whether it should be permanently blocked until the Navy obeys the law and demonstrates that LFA would not cause serious harm to ocean life.
Scientists are warning that LFA sonar may threaten the very survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering on the brink of extinction. At close range, the system's shock waves are so intense they can destroy a whale's eardrums, cause its lungs to hemorrhage, and even kill.
Further away, LFA noise can cause permanent hearing loss in marine mammals after a single transmission. At 40 miles away, LFA noise is still so intense it can disrupt the mating, feeding, nursing and other essential activities of marine mammals.
Two years ago, the mere testing of high-intensity Navy sonar in mid-frequency range caused a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas. Whales from three different species died, their inner ears bleeding from the explosive power of the sonar signal.
Just last month, a group of biologists off the coast of Washington state witnessed a "stampede" of distressed marine mammals as a U.S. destroyer, operating a powerful mid-frequency sonar system, passed through. Over the next several days, ten porpoises were discovered stranded on nearby beaches.
[...]
seashepherd.org
Posted: July, 2001
Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS)
Navy Sonar System Threatens Marine Mammals
by John Kehe
newconnexion.net |
