Sonar, the Navy and Whales

It is very unfortuante that the government is allowing the Navy to use sonar....

Here's an except from an interesting article: Dissenting judge Ruth Ginsburg further said the navy had failed to obey the law by not supplying a full report on the environmental risks before beginning to use sonar, and just sticking to its preliminary report. At the start of the Supreme Court hearing in October, government lawyer Gregory Carre acknowledged that a preliminary navy study found that sonar could disorient 170,000 marine mammals, and leave 8,000 whales temporarily deaf.

Drilling, sonar, sewage negatively impact our own ecosystem. I did a google search to see what individuals, groups or countries are doing to help the environment in which we all live I am impressed by Tunisia's environmental policy which reads... (www.tunisiaonline.com/culture/index.html)

Tunisia's environmental policy aims to preserve the ecological balance, safeguard natural and human resources, and control all forms of pollution. It also seeks to reconcile development needs with environmental imperatives in order to protect natural elements (air, water, soil, and biodiversity), reduce existing risks to such resources, and improve the living conditions of the population.

It is notable I did not find such a policy for the U.S. but there are plenty of articles on sonar use harming wildlife.

NRDC: Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar
International campaign to regulate active sonar systems that harm marine mammals.www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp - Cached
Whales Index Page - NRDC's BioGems
NRDC BioGems page to save whales and other marine mammals. ... Ear-splitting military sonar is needlessly threatening whales and other marine ...www.savebiogems.org/whales -
Is Navy Sonar Killing Whales? Holology by Freydis
This report studies the connections between Navy active-sonar and reports of whale deaths. ... sonar system could have caused a mass stranding of whales off ...www.holology.com/whale.html
Orca Network - News - Navy Sonar Blasts Whales
The Orca Network Lolita campaign: Enhancing awareness of a captive member of the Southern Resident ... US Navy Sonar blasts Pacific Northwest killer whales ...www.orcanetwork.org/news/shoup.html - 77k - Cached
Whale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pathology: whales, sonar and decompression sickness". Nature 428 (6894) ... "Sonar versus whales: noise may disrupt neural activity in deep-diving cetaceans" ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale - 68k - Cached
Sonar May Be Linked to Stranding of Whales LiveScience
The Navy's use of sonar during maritime exercises may have contributed to the mass stranding of more than 150 whales in Hawaii's Hanalei Bay two years ago, ...www.livescience.com/animals/ap_060428_sonar_whales.html - Cached

Dolphins Surfing off Redondo Beach

While walking along the Esplanade this afternoon, I spotted the outline of a dolphin surfing just as the wave crested and it's form was back lit by the greenish blue clear water. It was a stellar shot. No camera but one for the memory banks of the mind. I stopped to enjoy the sights, sun and light breeze and was amazed to count up to 13 pods having one heck of a time swimming both north and south.

For those of you who might be interested in learning more about the local dolphin population or donate to this cause, here's the link:http://www.oceanconservation.org/

While looking for great sites on dolphins to pass on, I sadly came upon this recent article in the LA Times about a deep diving dolphin that died most likely as a result of a Navy sonar research program. Call me a softy but this makes me sick to my stomach. How would you like to be merrily swimming along and have a sonar blast the life out of you? If you want to read it, here it is: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-dolphin22feb22,1,6511399.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

This reminded me that swimming with dolphins is in my must-do living-life-to-the-fullest list. There is a family vacation coming up in Mexico and so to end on a happier note: http://travel.latimes.com/destinations/mexico/puerto-vallarta/clm/active-pursuits/swimming-with-dolphins


Call it a 2-fer day. After blogging about those beautiful elegantly plumed peacocks, there was one crossing the road today.