Topic: Looks like the NAVY is using deep sonar again....or not, who knows.

[MiniSimp]

Rescuers Free Beached Whales in New Zealand Tue Dec 20,10:31 PM ET


Rescuers used high tide to free 110 pilot whales Wednesday, nearly a day after the animals became stranded on New Zealand's South Island.

"They're several kilometers from the shore," Department of Conservation spokeswoman Trish Grant told The Associated Press. "It's early times yet as to whether they make it out to sea or whether they turn back and restrand.

Grant said at least 15 whales had died on the beach during the 24-hour ordeal.

Hundreds of rescuers helped to keep the mammals alive by covering them with moisture until the tide came in.

Volunteers, including tourists from as far afield as China and Germany, joined the rescue effort. Some said they had never seen a whale before.

The whales had beached in two groups, one group of 60 whales near the top of the beach and another group of 63 whales stranded further out.

Grant said the surviving whales, including some young calves, "are not in too bad shape really, considering their stressful time."

New Zealand has several mass whale strandings each summer. Whale experts have been unable to explain why the whales apparently swim into dangerously shallow waters.

[MiniSimp [OP]]

US Navy sued over new sonars
 
The US Navy says sonar use will be strictly controlled

 
 
By Janet Williams
BBC reporter in Seattle 
 
 

A coalition of environmental groups led by the Natural Resources Defence Council is suing the US Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service to prevent the deployment of a new, powerful sonar system.

The group filed a lawsuit in San Francisco, saying the system known as the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active Sonar (Surtass-LFA) threatens entire populations of marine mammals, such as whales, dolphins and seals.

 
Environmentalists said a Navy sonar led to the Bahamas beachings in 2000
 
The US Navy says the new sonar, developed at a cost of $300m, is essential to its anti-submarine warfare effort and that its extensive studies show that it has a negligible effect on wildlife.

The Navy's new sonar emits powerful low-frequency sound to detect submarines at great distances, as far away as 450 kilometres (280 miles).

The effect, say environmentalists, is to saturate huge areas of ocean with extremely loud and disruptive sound. This noise, they say, harms and even kills marine mammals such as whales, which use their own sonar systems for feeding, communication and navigation.

Navy gets go-ahead

The environmentalists say that powerful mid-range sonar, used by the Navy off the Bahamas two years ago, caused 16 whales to run aground. Eight of them died.

The Navy disputes those findings. It says that its own extensive research into low-frequency sonar shows that few, if any, marine mammals would be subject to harmful noise.

The new system, it adds, is the only technology capable of detecting today's quieter diesel-powered submarines and is therefore vital for national security.

Last month the US National Marine Fisheries Service, the government agency responsible for protecting ocean wildlife, decided to allow the Navy to deploy the radar for five years. It was, said one environmental campaigner, a licence to kill.

[BLACKDOG]

Don't the environmentalists have anything better to do? I mean come on, I understand the protection of the environment, and "treading lightly"  but the research the military does into developmental stuf is astounding.  And if they didn't care, why would the militay have several different environmental programs?  I think this is just more people get pissed off over nothing, just so they can feel useful

[MiniSimp [OP]]

The sonar works great! Only problem is the frequency throws off the sonar of whales.
If it is needed, they will use it.

[CTENG in KS]

Some of those whales have large horn-like protrusions...I am glad we have an efficient weapon against them, the organized revolt is only a matter of time. :black helicopters:

[BLACKDOG]

The sonar works great! Only problem is the frequency throws off the sonar of whales.
If it is needed, they will use it.

Wouldn't that fall under the category of few, if any, marine animals??   from the environmentalist point of view, they make it sond as if it affects everything from anemones to dolphins to starfish to whales.

[MiniSimp [OP]]

Oh they will make a huge deal out of it.
When it comes down to us or them though.....guess who gets my vote.

[Duffil]

Some of those whales have large horn-like protrusions...I am glad we have an efficient weapon against them, the organized revolt is only a matter of time. :black helicopters:

  :black helicopters:   they're listening!!!!

[CTENG in KS]