I remember watching a quite upsetting program on this very subject at least 10, if not 15 years back on the BBC called 'Deaf Whale, Dead Whale' and finally something seems to be being done about it.

About f*cking time too.
'nana

SANTA MONICA, Calif.
- Environmentalists sued the Navy on Wednesday, claiming that a widely used form of sonar for detecting enemy submarines disturbs and sometimes kills whales and dolphins.

The sonar "is capable of flooding thousands of square miles of ocean with dangerous levels of noise pollution," according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

The Navy settled a similar lawsuit two years ago by agreeing to limit the peacetime use of experimental low-frequency sonar. The new lawsuit, by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other plaintiffs, seeks a court order to curb mid-frequency sonar, the most common method of detecting enemy submarines.

NRDC attorney Joel Reynolds said the group recognizes the Navy's need to detect enemies, and he noted that the lawsuit seeks limits on sonar during training exercises, not in war.

"Our position is that whales shouldn't have to die for practice," he said.

The environmentalists want the Navy to use harmless passive sonar — listening for sounds made by marine mammals themselves — to locate the animals before using mid-frequency sonar. They also want the Navy to avoid migration and calving areas and to turn on sonar systems gradually so that the animals have time to flee.

Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks said the Navy already is doing many of the things demanded in the suit.

The lawsuit blames the Navy for the January stranding and deaths of at least 37 whales on North Carolina's Outer Banks after a mid-frequency sonar exercise. The Navy said the exercise was probably too far away to have harmed the whales.

- TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer


The dotted lines above show migration routes of three species of whales found
in BioGem habitats.* The map also identifies locations within these areas where
the use of military sonar has coincided with whale strandings and deaths.**

Online Resources:

BioGems

Natural Resources Defense Council





[Edited 10/19/05 15:30pm]

This is disturbing. i'm sure the animal kingdom will be thrilled when the human race is wiped off the face of the earth (by our own hands), so they can get back to the way things should be.

IrresistibleB1tch said:

it isn't already?

sinisterpentatonic said:

true, but many don't want to see it yet.

Reminds me of a movie I've seen before.


Oh yeah!

TMPletz said:

I think I've seen this it had some whales in it, aside from William Shatner

charlottegelin said:

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Amen to that.

Someone please explain humanity's sheer ignorance to me, because seriously...

I

JUST

DON'T

GET

IT

BananaCologne said:

'nana I so agree with you and IB

IrresistibleB1tch said:

and co-sign


and "these days" have begun