Hove You Ever Been There

Have you ver gone swimming with the dolphins, heard the natural sounds of the ocean while diving or seen a whale? Weither you were in the water or saw Shamu at Sea Worlk you understand the beauty of these extravagant animals. Since the late 1980's the U.S. Military, specifically the Navy, is pushing a program that, if approved, will soon be bombarding millions of whales and dolphins around the world with intense noise.

In the oceans, Whales and dolphins orient themselves and locate objects through echolocation. This is when they give off a noise and bounces off an object and returns a sound or an echo. This is the means for their survival, they find food and detect pretators this way. With the Navy's new program the whales and dolphins have a rough guture. They are planning to send Low active frequency sonar (LFAS) into 80% of the worlds oceans. LFAS is a very low frequency sonar that is used to detect submarines. This works in the same way as echolocation. The sonar is sounded off by speakers under the water, sending off LFAS at 235dB. To imagine this sound at jet engine has a frequency of 120dB. At an airport people on the runway are required to wear head phones to protect their eardrums. With LFAS having such a high decibel level it is hard to think that whales and dolphins would be swimming through the sonar. "Imagine an acoustic wave so powerful that, even at substantial

distances, it can destroy your hearing, causing your ears and lungs to hemmorage or even kill you" relates Jean-michel Cousteau of Ocean futures Society. This sonar system is creating bybbles the size of a golf ball in these animals liver and kidneys, it is silencing these mammals from their echolocation and it is disturbing their migration paths. After the Navy did extensice testing on March 15, 2000, 14 animals stranded or beached themselves and 7 of the 14 died. Kenneth Balcomb from the center for whale research says "the killing is lagely due to the US Naval Sonar System entering the animals cranial airspaces tearing apart delicate tissues around the brain and ears".

The Navy is fighting with many conservation groups over this matter. The Navy is breaking the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Spieces Act by blairing their sonar into the oceans. One way to stop this from continue is to write to your local senator and congressman asking them not to approce the Navy's program. You can also support conservation

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