Royal Navy Testing Sonar Blamed For Mass Whale Deaths
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By Torcuil Crichton
The Sunday Herald.com
11-12-2
Low-frequency device was banned by US courts but is now being used
by UK off Kyle of Lochalsh...
A high-powered military sonar, banned by the US courts because it
can have potentially fatal effects on whales, is being tested by the Royal
Navy in Scottish waters.
The tests are being carried out without the permission of the
statutory environmental agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which has
now demanded a meeting with the navy to discuss the issue. A spokes man
said: 'We have previously been assured that neither the Royal Navy nor other
Nato forces use Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar during training in Scottish
waters, and we're unaware of any testing being carried out off the coast of
Scotland.'
But the LFA sonar tested at the Royal Navy's British Underwater
Testing and Evaluation Centre (Butec) at the Kyle of Lochalsh, near Skye,
has been blamed for disturbing whales and causing internal bleeding and
disorientation.
A series of mass strandings of whales coinciding with military
exercises across the world's oceans has led to legal action in the US and
calls by British environmentalists to ban the use of the powerful sonar
device, which emits sounds loud enough to be heard hundreds of miles away
across the ocean. UK environmentalists are ready to follow the lead of US
campaigners by taking the government to court to enforce a ban on testing in
Britain.
Sonar systems are used to detect submarines, but new technology
means that the signals they emit are now millions of times louder than older
versions.
Evidence linking whale deaths to military activity is increasing.
Last August 17 whales of various species beached and died on the Canary
Islands -- the fourth mass whale strandings in the islands in the last 20
years. Each one of the incidents coincided with Nato naval exercises around
the islands. In the summer of 2000 another 17 whales beached in the Bahamas
just after a fleet of US destroyers had passed close by. Animal pathologists
found the mammals had suffered internal bleeding in the ears and the brain.
Whatever caused their death also caused great pain and distress.
The US version of the LFA system emits a sound that can produce 160
decibels at a range of 160 km, 50 times louder than the US Navy's own
safe-sound limit for human divers. After it emerged that the US navy was
testing the LFA around the American coastline, claiming its effects did not
have 'significant biological impact' on the breeding or migration of whales,
the environmental lobby went to law.
The environmentalists said US Navy tests exposed whales to 150
decibels and then set a safe limit of 180 decibels -- which is 1000 times
louder. Last week a federal judge in California agreed with them and banned
the use of LFA until the military and the marine scientists could agree on
geographical limits.
'We sincerely believe that LFA sonar will damage the marine
environment,' said Naomi Rose of the Humane Society in Washington. 'Its
low-frequency ping can last 100 seconds, can travel hundreds of miles, and
harass and displace whales from their feeding and breeding grounds.'
Tests on the British system have been carried out at the Butec base,
which sits on the rocks at Kyle of Lochalsh in the shadow of the Skye
bridge. Basically an at-sea laboratory for torpedo and sub marine
development, the Butec test range covers a huge area of sea stretching from
the base north through the Sound of Raasay.
The frequent military activity proves a headache for local
fishermen, who are routinely excluded from the range -- but the base, a
collection of inconspicuous brown buildings on the edge of Kyle, provides
dozens of high-quality jobs in the area.
'We take our responsibility to the environment very seriously,' said
an MoD spokeswoman. 'We use the best available scientific advice to minimise
our impact on the environment.'
Because of security implications, that advice is not being shared
with the marine research community -- but the MoD itself admits that the
tests, carried out by civilian contractors, found that 'low-frequency active
sonar has an adverse effect on the marine environment'.
Whale-watching on Scotland's west coast is now a multimillion- pound
business, and if there are no mammals to watch the economic cost for tourist
operators could be considerable.
On the initiative of an operator of a local whale-watching boat, the
Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust began correlating whale sightings to the
regular naval exercises that take place off the west coast of Scotland.
'The boats always noticed a two-week lull in cetacean sightings
around the time of the exercises,' said Chris Parsons, who has been on Mull
collecting data on sea mammals for more than a decade. 'We looked at the
figures and there was a decline in numbers in the aftermath of an exercise.'
In Britain the MoD is subject to all the wildlife legislation in the
book unless it is given specific exemptions. None has been applied for LFA.
'Under EU law it is illegal to harm or harass cetaceans, such as
whales,' says Parsons.
Until it can be proved that these sonars do not cause disturbance,
injury or death to cetaceans, there ought to be a moratorium on their use.
Otherwise the Royal Navy could be breaking the law.
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