Battleships: The Navy Is To Intensify Its Sonar Testing, to the Detriment of the Cetaceans

The U.S. Navy has planned to increase its sonar testing over the next five years. And that’s just too bad for different types of whales and dolphins, who are threatened by these little military experiments.

The problem is nothing new, the Associated Press reminds us, and first arose in the United States about 100 years ago when the Navy began to use sonar. Sonar is a technique which is particularly harmful to these cetaceans; the intensity of the sound which is emitted is so powerful that it disorientates them completely — to such an extent that the noise pollution can drive them to shallow waters, where they can get stuck in the sand or end up beached. This is particularly the case of the bottlenose whale, which is very sensitive to sound. However, scientists warn that the largest living mammal, the blue whale, could also be affected.

“This result has to be taken into consideration by regulators and those planning naval exercises,” warned Stacy DeRuiter, who took part in the studies carried out by the University of St. Andrews in Scotland on the impact of sonar on several species of whales.

These studies reproduced the sound of sonar at 200 decibels around whales. In a diameter of 3 to 10 kilometers, all of the species present stopped feeding and swimming before adopting very unusual behavior which was dangerous for their survival.

These considerations don’t seem to worry the U.S. Navy. Environmentalists have accused them of rushing in order to obtain this five-year permit from the national marine fisheries industry without taking into account the dangers sonar poses for cetaceans.

And yet, according to the Navy’s own figures, this activity could kill 186 whales and dolphins on the East Coast alone, and 155 in Hawaii and Southern California. In these three zones, 13,000 cetaceans would be seriously injured and 2 million “slightly” injured, including those which could lose their hearing. Sarah Dolman, of the NGO Whale and Dolphin Conservation reminds The Guardian that “for whales and dolphins, listening is as important as seeing is for humans — they communicate, locate food and navigate using sound.”

If the U.S. Navy is still balking at the idea of recognizing the extent of the damage for these shallow water animals, the British Royal Navy has, for its part, made an effort and now limits the use of sonar around these fragile animals.