LOUD SOUND WAVES - Ha Ha
 

Okay that was funny. Frankly for smart creatures they do seemingly stupid things like run aground for no reason or behave on more a behavioural method than that of true intelligence. Frankly if you are so worried about the whales I would be flailing about whaling and countries that still support whaling as well as fishing on an industrial level that inadvertantly kills a number of small cetaceans. So here is some data for you:

How does active sonar harm whales? According to a report in the scientific journal Nature, animals that came ashore during one mass stranding had developed large emboli, or bubbles, in their organ tissue. The report suggested that the animals had suffered from something akin to a severe case of "the bends" -- the illness that can kill scuba divers who surface too quickly from deep water. The study supports what many scientists have long suspected: that the whales stranded on shore are only the most visible symptom of a problem affecting much larger numbers of marine life.
Other impacts, though more subtle, are no less serious. Marine mammals and many species of fish use sound to follow migratory routes, locate each other over great distances, find food and care for their young. Noise that undermines their ability to hear can threaten their ability to function and, over the long term, to survive. Naval sonar has been shown to alter the singing of humpback whales, an activity essential to the reproduction of this endangered species; to disrupt the feeding of orcas; and to cause porpoises and other species to leap from the water, or panic and flee. Over time, these effects could undermine the fitness of populations of animals, contributing to what prominent biologist Sylvia Earle has called "a death of a thousand cuts."

In regards to whales and ears here some more you
Some of the major differences with terrestrial mammals are 1) whales lack a tympanic membrane (or it's very reduced); they have a tympanic plate which is a very thin bone, capable of vibrations; 2) the bone that envelops the internal ear (petrose) does not contact the rest of the skull; it's suspended away from other bones by means of ligaments and surrounded by an oily-mucous foam that also fills the 3) extensive sinuses in the head (cavities in the soft tissues below the blowhole, connected to the middle ear and the nasal passages). These sinuses and their content regulate pressure within the middle ear.
The ear is efficiently isolated from the surrounding skull bones.

What is also very different in whales with respect to other mammals is the path of sound to the inner ear. In terrestrial mammals, sound vibrations that traverse the air are received by the tympanum, and the chain of ossicles amplifies these vibrations and transmits them inwards (the entrance to the internal ear is much smaller than the tympanum, thus enhancing the amplification). This is not efficient under water, where much of the sound is lost at each water-air/air-water interface.
In cetaceans (at least in Odontoceti, the toothed whales) sound waves are received via a sector in the lower jaw, and transmitted to the middle ear by means of a specialized soft tissue or 'fat pad' that extends from the lower jaw to the middle-internal ear. There, the tympanic membrane and the tympanic plate perceive different vibration frequencies.

The echolocation of toothed whales has been extensively studied, and the evolution of this system can be traced in the fossil record of whales:
http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comme...
but there's not much information about baleen whales (Mysticeti). I know that the auditory meatus is more reduced, and that they don't echolocate like odontocetes do.

And finally since whales range the world over there will ALWAYS be a conflict between the need to train and the protection of marine mammals. Fact is that US Navy ships are severly hampered, with training being suspended until there are no cetaceans in the area - yes there are occassional incidents but no dat supports wide scale slaughter by active sonar systems - in fact scientist BELIEVE that is what is effecting them but lack CONCLUSIVE evidence to totally support there claim. One scientist evn admited that the Humpback transmits at 180 dB in close proximity to it's young and pod - with no ill effect to them - and in a frequency realm that covers MF Active - yet no ill effects are observed.
Last thing about training - it is imperative that some degree of proficency be maintained in order to keep up some chance to protect the High Value Unit. We have to train in areas of oppertunity and imprtantly in areas where we expect to fight - otherwise training is pointless.