Fwd: Marine niose testing update

[Cari Gehl]

Posted on behalf of Lifeforce Foundation

NEWS RELEASE
June 10,1996

Despite widespread public protest, Lifeforce, a Vancouver-based ecology
organization, has been informed by the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) that apermit was issued to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's
Henrick Schmidt and Patrick Miller. This will result in the pollution of
fragile San Juan Island habitats with hidh level sounds under US Navy
funding. The unbearable noises that could harm whales and dolphins will be
emited for up to 10 hours every day from June 10th to July 5th. Sounds of up
to 195 dB will bombard the sensitive marine life when sounds of only 130 dB
disturbs humans.

Prior to the issuance of the permit several complaints were launched against
the "oversight committee" head, Patrick Miller, and member Robin Baird, for
irresponsible, reeckless behavior during the week of June 3rd. First they
dangerously operated motor vessels without due care and attention and nearly
collided with other boats. And secondly, they jeopardized thelives of orcas
by running on top of the orcas. Regulations state that vessels must maintain
a 100-yard clearance and, to the best of Lifeforce's knowledge, the
researchers did not have any special permission to approach orcas in this
despicable manner. In view of this flagrant, disrepectful actions, Lifeforce
urged NMFS Director, William Fox to intervene by reviewing the applicant's
credentials and demanding an environmental impact study.

Lifeforce Founding Director, Peter Hamilton, stated, "The whales and
dolphins have lost. NMFS has failed to protect them. They have also
neglected their responsibility to protect marine ecosystems by issuing the
permit without an environmental impact study. The now permitted "harassment"
of marine mammals is not "incidental" because it is a direct result of the
experiments and has the potential of killing wildlife and damaging
ecosystems. Damage to hearing aand other life-threatening injuries will not
and cannot be determined by human observers because it is impossible to
clinically inspect the whales and dolphins."

Mr. Hamilton added, "To allow multiple experiments such as this bombardment
of noise and the planned shooting of whales with painful skin biopsy darts
in yet another experiment is a dereliction of the US government's duty. They
have abandoned the whales and opened the floodgate for anyone seeking a PhD
and money to study the whales to death.

Lifeforce is working with the Sierre Legal Defence Fund in San Francisco to
consider legal action.

Lifeforce urges anyone anyone observing any further harassment of marine
mammals or any other problems, to report the incident to Lifeforce.

Tel. (604) 669-4673
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cari Gehl
(sky...@primenet.com)
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[Wesley Elsberry]

sky...@primenet.com (Cari Gehl) wrote:

>Posted on behalf of Lifeforce Foundation

>NEWS RELEASE
>June 10,1996

>Despite widespread public protest, Lifeforce, a Vancouver-based ecology
>organization, has been informed by the National Marine Fisheries Service
>(NMFS) that apermit was issued to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's
>Henrick Schmidt and Patrick Miller. This will result in the pollution of
>fragile San Juan Island habitats with hidh level sounds under US Navy
>funding. The unbearable noises that could harm whales and dolphins will be
>emited for up to 10 hours every day from June 10th to July 5th. Sounds of up
>to 195 dB will bombard the sensitive marine life when sounds of only 130 dB
>disturbs humans.

Excuse me, but the LifeForce press writer seems to have forgotten to convert
dB re 0.000204 microbars (measures of sound pressure level in air) to
dB re 1.0 micropascal (measures of sound pressure level in water). This is
accomplished by adding 100.0 to the value of the measured air SPL. Thus, to
compare disturbing SPLs for humans to an underwater SPL, one must first add
100. This yields a comparison of 230 dB to 195 dB, all referenced to
1.0 micropascal. A 35 dB difference means that the sounds being used in the
San Juan Islands are (1/3250)th as loud as those sounds identified as being
disturbing to humans. For those who can't translate that into English, it's
a comparatively teeny-weenie sound.

A decibel is *not* a unit, it is a ratio. Any decibel measurement must be
referenced to something in order to make it meaningful. For instance,
one mile is 48 dB re 1 inch, 2 miles is 51 dB re 1 inch, etc. One doesn't
usually use dB to compare distance, but the technique is the same. Change
the reference, and comparison cannot be done directly. One mile is 26.4 dB
re 1 foot. The LifeForce writer's statement is analogous to saying that it
is further to walk 51 dB re 1 inch than it is to walk 35.4 dB re 1 foot. In
reality, the 51 dB distance is 2 miles, and the 35.4 dB distance is 8 miles.
From where I sit, 8 miles looks like the longer distance no matter how it is
expressed. To get an equivalent dB value re 1 inch, one must add 21.6 to
the value given in dB re 1 foot. Thus, the real comparison would be 57 dB re
1 inch vs. 51 dB re 1 inch.

Au reports that dolphin biosonar vocalizations measured in Kaneohe Bay were
on average 217.7 dB re 1.0 micropascal at 1m. One can only wonder that
dolphins choose to stay in the company of sources of noise of "unbearable"
levels, as the LifeForce writer must conclude that other dolphins are.
Yet, there are undeniably observations of groups of dolphins hanging out
together.

The mix-up on dB comparisons is clearly an erroneous statement by LifeForce.
But is it deception?

[...]