Sonar effects on Marine Mammals

[Fiona]

This has just been highlighted on the BBC's CountryFile programme

Effects Of Sonar
Part of the The Marine Connection's work focuses on the the use of sonar by the world's Navies. Sonar systems used by the military have been known to confuse whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, resulting in many deaths and injuries.

The UK's new sonar - 2087 - is no different and will be fitted to six Royal Navy anti-submarine frigates within the next two years. The first vessel, HMS Westminster, has now been installed with the sonar and the second, HMS Northumberland, will be installed June 2005.

The purpose? ~ to provide the Royal Navy with an underwater sensor capable of detecting submarines from large distances. The Ministry of Defence do not think that their sonar 2087 trials warrant any public hearings. In early 2005, the US Navy will release a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed sonar-testing range along the Atlantic coast, public hearings will be held after the EIS is released.

The power of some of these sonar systems, the number of decibels that they produce and the distance they can travel can undoubtedly have an effect on marine life. Cetaceans may experience gross damage to ears, damage to body tissue, masking of communication,interference with ability to acoustically interpret their environment and also interference with food finding. Long term effects caused by sonar are almost impossible to identify. Many whales that are fatally impacted can sink to the bottom of the ocean, therefore the true death toll cannot be estimated. There are widespread concerns about the danger of high intensity sonar to marine mammals, marine ecosystems and the health of our depleted oceans. Low frequency sonar can travel hundreds of miles through our oceans at considerable intensities.

Whales and dolphins are acoustic animals, they use echolocation to hunt for food, find companions and find their way around the oceans, sonar can easily disrupt their normal ability to navigate. A report published in the journal Nature (2003) said that sonar off the Canary Islands in 2002 prompted 10 beaked whales to surface too quickly, causing decompression sickness, an ailment known among divers as the bends. Experts worldwide have condemned the use of high intensity sonar in the marine environment.

In October 2004 the European Parliament called for a ban in European waters of military sonar equipment and asked its twenty-five member states to stop deploying high-intensity active naval sonar. In November 2004, Delegates at The meeting of the parties to ACCOBAMS (the United Nations Environment Program's Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area) adopted a resolution recognising that man-made ocean noise as a dangerous pollutant to marine life. In November 2004, the World Conservation Union also called for action to reduce the impact of high-intensity active sonar and other sources of damaging underwater sound.

The Marine Connection are delighted with this as it is a huge step forward in protecting our oceans but all of this clearly shows that there is a growing international consensus that something must be done to control underwater noise.