It's not bs that sonar kills whales. This does happen. It would kill a human if he were in the water when the sonar hit him. I'll bet that today's sonar systems have a lot more power than those used during WWII.
And it's not the bends or air bubbles killing the whales from sonar. Whales can dive to great depths and stay down for long periods of times. They take a breath at the surface and get only so many molecules of air. A diver can't get the bends from free diving. He may pass out from a lack of oxygen if he stays down too long but the bends he will not get.
You have to breath compressed air at great depths or for long periods of time to build up nitrogen in the blood stream. Only then if you surface too quickly will that nitrogen out gas into the blood stream and form bubbles
What is killing the whales is the LOUD SOUND WAVES that are busting the eardrums and inner ears of the Whales. If a human were to swim out in front of one of today's sonar units he too would have ruptured ear drums and loose his hearing.
It took a while to establish the cause of the whale deaths because many people didn't know the navy was active in the area where the whales died.
Not sure if Russia gives a damn about saving whales. So this may not get reported in the Russian Press. Not really sure that Russia has a free press and that could be why it's not reported.
Whales have certain migration routes and they are found in different places during different times.
More research could be performed to discover where the whales are going to be at certain times and then the navy could do training in areas that will most likely not have any whales there at that time of the year.
The problem is that the navy needs to train sonar operators to conduct operations in areas were we may most likely find and fight the enemy. That could be along OUR OWN Coast lines. Therefore our navy needs to train in this area.
Enemy subs will be looking to destroy our naval bases and areas around these bases needs to be guarded well. Since we have a lot of naval bases along the Pacific Coast line that means we need to train in this area. But this area is where the Whales migrate up and down the coast line. Blue whales migrate from the Gulf of Cortez up to the the Washington State coast.
Today's modern electric subs are much too quiet to detect at long range with passive sonar. Therefore the need to train using active sonar is great.
A lot more sea life is going to die when we have a war since a lot of nuclear powered ships are going to be sunk and or destroyed. That will release a lot of radiation into the oceans. And if we go to war it could easily turn into a nuclear war which will not only wipe out a lot of marine life but mankind as well.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by scrag
I am always amazed at the "Active Sonar kills Marine Mammal" crap that is in the press. Been in the Sonar business 20 plus years - weird part was there was a lot read (100 X ) of high power active used in the cold war by both sides (majority by skimmers) and you never heard of the massive beaching by various cetacean species. Now a DD goes active and the supposedly "smart cetacean" beaches itself the DD is automatically faulted. There are a number of references to "Beaked Whales" beaching in the vicinity of Navy Exercise (largely US) but little is mentioned about beachings in other area of known concentrations of Naval Forces (ie those of the Russia or China) Why? It is also mentioned that the symptoms suffered by whales is similar to the Bends or Nitrogyn Narcosis (gas bubbles formed in the blood stream) which can lead to death - why because in humans it is associated by a rapid change of depth (deep to shallow) with an inadequate dwell time at depths that allow the body to adjust. So are the whales changing depth too quickly? No one knows for certain - but it is also not conclusive that the whales are being killed or given the bends by Actice Sonar. Funny part about all this is that the loudest living thing in the world is in fact a Blue Whale which is at 190 dB//uPa as well as the Humback Whale at 180 - 186 dB//uPA. This is as loud as most Sonars employed today.
|