Whale's death just a fluke

Beached whales and presidential exemptions brought mainstream attention to the effects of Navy sonar on marine life; even though the debate has existed since the Navy started using the technology more than 40 years ago.

Now, after another beached whale was found on a Ventura County coastline earlier this month soon after the Navy restarted its trials of the technology, environmentalists have taken a presidential exemption allowing the testing to court.

Environmentalists argue that the use of sonar affects the ability of ocean mammals to communicate and can even cause disorientation. The ocean is a highly acoustic environment in which sound vibrations can be carried up to five times the distance they would in air. Because these mammals use sounds similar to sonar, they are particularly susceptible to man-made sonar communication. The most damaging source would be considered low frequency sonar, as it travels the farthest and can cause mammals to become deafened or disoriented.

Last year, newly enacted federal environmental policies sought to increase the protections against sonar damage to ocean life. President Bush allowed an exemption on three specific points. The Navy was previously required to perform complete power down of sonar when a marine mammal was spotted on radar within 1,000 yards of a naval vessel.

This act sought to increase that distance to 2,000 meters, an increase of approximately 825 yards. It also required that the Navy do a flyover of affected areas 60 minutes prior to commencing any exercise which would involve the use of sonar to search for any sea life in the area, and that would prohibit the use of sonar in certain environmental conditions.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) initiated a law suit claiming that the president’s exemption was unconstitutional, and on Feb. 4, a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, agreed. This decision came just three days after the conclusion of a massive Naval exercise in Southern California. In the intervening period, a 45-foot grey whale beached itself on the rocks below a gated Seacliff community.

Michelle Bremner, an associate curator at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural history, said no samples were taken from this animal and its cause of death could not be found. But due to the level of decomposition found in the whale’s corpse, they estimated that the animal had been dead for approximately three weeks.

“There have been other whales that have beached up and down the coastline, but studies have been inconclusive in regards to the actual cause of death,” said Hamlet Paoletti of the NRDC. He would not comment on this gray whale, saying NRDC intends to “wait for studies to say with certainty” whether or not this whale was in fact killed as a result of sonar use.

Though there will be no further study of this particular whale and most likely no official cause of death, Bremner said that there will be others to study if the pattern of stranded whales continues.

“It has been pretty consistant over the past few years,” she said. “About two or three gray whales beach themselves annually, which is not surprising for gray whales which tend to migrate hugging the coastline as opposed to blue whales which travel much farther out to sea.”

But the question still lingers about the direct impact if Naval sonar use on these animals. The Abraham Lincoln Strike Group, which began its annual exercises near San Diego on Jan 23, did in fact use active sonar on five of the 10 days of exercise. The Strike Group is comprised of the USS Abraham Lincoln, upwards of eight battleship and support aircraft. They use sonar to communicate with one another, but spokespeople would not say if that sonar had a direct effect on this whale.

“There is no evidence that the Naval exercises had any direct effect on the death of this whale,” said Navy Commander Dora Lockwood. “The Navy is an environmental steward, and we want to take care of the ocean as much as any environmental group.”

Lockwood said the Navy will abide whatever laws and regulations are decided upon. The implementation of these new requirements will require the expense of additional resources, but Navy could not comment on the actual cost of putting them into place.

As for the whale, experts are calling the proximity of the exercises, the law suit and the discovery of the stranded whale a mere coincidence.
“It is easy to draw inferences,” said Bremner, “but at this time, we don’t believe that the death of this gray whale was the result of the Naval exercises.”