Comments on: The Sound and the Fury http://www.scienceline.org/2008/12/22/enviro-peeples-whales-sonar-navy/ The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:01:23 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Stocker http://www.scienceline.org/2008/12/22/enviro-peeples-whales-sonar-navy/comment-page-1/#comment-2560 Michael Stocker Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:47:50 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/12/22/enviro-peeples-whales-sonar-navy/#comment-2560 This article is a reasonable overview of the growing impacts of sonar technologies on marine mammals. Most of the questions posed in the article are accepted by the both the defense and conservation stakeholders in this conversation. Chris Parsons does bring up a good point that alludes to the US Navy's dismissing the known incidents of sonar related strandings by their pointing to fishing related deaths of marine mammals. Comparing sonar-related strandings to fisheries related strandings does not help diminish the problem. This position is akin to arguing that the NY City homicide detail is not really necessary because so many more people die in auto accidents. The increase in stranding incidents may be partially related to higher human populations that are by sheer numbers more likely to encounter stranded marine mammals on the world's beaches. But the increase in stranding incidents can also be correlated to increased use of sonar - not just for reconnaissance purposes, but also for more complex communication purposes. New communication sonars are introducing digital signals that are not found in nature. It is quite possible that these signals have a deleterious effect on marine mammals because they sound "obnoxious." So the increase in impacts may have more to do with the signal characteristics than with signal levels. We are currently working on a metric that will help qualify various signals used in the marine environment. We hope that this will add a useful tool and more information to this ongoing discussion and growing threat to the marine acoustical environment. This article is a reasonable overview of the growing impacts of sonar technologies on marine mammals. Most of the questions posed in the article are accepted by the both the defense and conservation stakeholders in this conversation. Chris Parsons does bring up a good point that alludes to the US Navy’s dismissing the known incidents of sonar related strandings by their pointing to fishing related deaths of marine mammals.

Comparing sonar-related strandings to fisheries related strandings does not help diminish the problem. This position is akin to arguing that the NY City homicide detail is not really necessary because so many more people die in auto accidents.

The increase in stranding incidents may be partially related to higher human populations that are by sheer numbers more likely to encounter stranded marine mammals on the world’s beaches. But the increase in stranding incidents can also be correlated to increased use of sonar – not just for reconnaissance purposes, but also for more complex communication purposes.

New communication sonars are introducing digital signals that are not found in nature. It is quite possible that these signals have a deleterious effect on marine mammals because they sound “obnoxious.” So the increase in impacts may have more to do with the signal characteristics than with signal levels.

We are currently working on a metric that will help qualify various signals used in the marine environment. We hope that this will add a useful tool and more information to this ongoing discussion and growing threat to the marine acoustical environment.

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