Sonar Use and Beaked-Whale Strandings
Abstract
Marine mammals routinely strand in the shallow waters along U.S. shore lines and in many other parts of the world. In most cases, the cause of strandings is unknown; some identified causes include disease, parasite infestation, harmful algal blooms, injuries from ship strikes or fishery entanglements, and exposure to pollution, trauma, and starvation. There have been a handful of incidents when Navy sonar operations at sea coincided in time and location with the mass stranding of beaked whales. A research active source that had both a low- and mid-frequency aperture was used during the NATO sea trial that seemed to coincide with the 1996 mass stranding off the coast of Greece. Although a conclusive cause and effect relationship has not been generally established, there is anecdotal evidence and scientific concern that military sonars could cause beaked whales to strand [2 through 10]. Most previous attempts to determine whether correlations exist between military sonar use and beaked whale strandings have looked at individual events and pointed out those instances in which military operations seemed to coincide in time and location with a beaked whale mass stranding. Lacking reliable data on naval operations, looking for temporal-spatial correlations has been the only method available to us prior to this study. A retrospective analysis was suggested as the outcome of the MMC Beaked Whale Workshop, April 2004 [11] and in [12].
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA596772
Entities
People
- Angela D'amico
- Edward S. Michlovich
- Jessica S. Wolfanger
- Ronald J. Filadelfo
Organizations
- Naval Information Warfare Systems Command