A while back I posted a story about some dolphins off Florida that had beached themselves who subsequently died. A few days after the event it was disclosed that there had been submarine naval exercises in the area that MAY have used sonar. Can you imagine submarine exercises that WOULDN'T involve sonar? Neither can I. It was speculated that they may have been fleeing the sonar blasts and either became confused leading to their beaching or that they surfaced to quickly and suffered from the "bends" much as humans do. I have not heard of any reports post autopsy results to clear the matter up and I don't expect to. The initial story about the exercises was almost totlly ignored by the MSM, and I don't have any confidence that they would give a followup any airtime in any event.
That said ** THIS STORY ** caught my eye. It claims that a study of orcas following an incident in the Puget Sound concluded that they suffered no hearing loss. The assuption being if they suffered no hearing loss from sonar that therefore sonar was not harming them and the navy could go on using it.
However the issue with regard to sonar is not only one of permanent hearing loss. Temporary hearing loss could be just as devastating as a permanent loss. Not to mention the fact that these loud blasts of sonar frighten the animals causing them to flee without regard to safety and can cause them to surface to quickly or even beach themselves.
To continue to claim that sonar has no impact on these marine mammals flies in the face of all reason and I would hope that public pressure will force the navy to deal with this in a responsible manner.
I'm not holding my breath however.
IA
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