- ROME (Reuters) -- Sonar used
by the military to spot enemy submarines is to blame for increasing cases
of whales being stranded on beaches and dying, the scientific committee
of the International Whaling Commission said in a report this week.
-
- The IWC report adds weight to theories that sonar harms
the giant sea mammals, a hypothesis that has been disputed by the military
and by the oil and gas industry which uses the technology to search for
energy reserves.
-
- "There is now compelling evidence implicating military
sonar as a direct impact on beaked whales in particular," said the
report released at the IWC's four-day annual convention which was winding
up Thursday.
-
- The report cited examples of bizarre and self-destructive
whale behavior that seemed to have been caused by military sonar, such
as a mass stampede of 200 melon-headed whales into shallow water in Hawaii
last month during a U.S.-Japanese naval training exercise. One animal died.
-
- Scientists are unsure exactly why sonar causes whales
to get stranded. One theory is that the noise disrupts their communication
and navigation systems. Another is that the signals confuse whales in deep
water, forcing them to surface quickly, suffering rapid decompression and
a form of the bends.
-
- The report may strengthen the hand of U.S. conservation
groups which are threatening to sue the Navy over its use of mid-frequency
sonar.
-
- BACK-FLIPS
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- The Natural Resources Defense Council has already secured
an injunction limiting the U.S. Navy's use of new low-frequency sonar that
can travel vast distances through the oceans, and is now targeting the
more common mid-frequency sonar.
-
- "This is the first time such a broad, diverse group
(of scientists) has made this finding," said council lawyer Joel Reynolds.
"Navies of the world do back-flips to deny any connection."
-
- The IWC, a 57-country intergovernmental body which regulates
whaling, said earlier in the week that oil and gas exploration off Russia's
Pacific coast threatened a colony of gray whales with extinction due to
sonar and pollution.
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- Energy firms blast noise waves down to the sea floor
to detect the presence of oil and gas reserves.
-
- The IWC expressed concern about energy activities in
the Sakhalin Island region off Russia where Royal Dutch/Shell, Exxon Mobil
and BP operate.
-
- Its scientific report also identified oil and gas exploration
near the Abrolhos Banks, a coral reef off Brazil, as a hazard for humpback
whales and called on the government to protect the mammals from the noise.
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