Lawsuit: Reveal effects of military sonar on whales

[ElsewheresDaughter]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/06/03/sonic.whales.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- A national conservation group filed suit Wednesday to force the government to reveal the extent to which ocean mammals worldwide have died as a result of massive sonic blasts from intense military search equipment.

In the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. demanded the information from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Commerce.

The group said it was seeking thousands of pages of documents through the Freedom of Information Act related to mass strandings and deaths of marine mammals. It said the government has turned over only 12 documents totaling fewer than 25 pages.

Among materials sought by the group are documents relating to a mass stranding of whales along the Outer Banks of North Carolina in January.

<snip>
The group said the Navy's sonar systems generate sound of extreme intensity to locate objects in the ocean. It said the sounds can disturb, injure and even kill marine mammals, which have extraordinarily sensitive hearing.

Mass whale stranding in Australia....June 2, 2005



http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/06/02/australia.whales.beaching.reut/index.html



SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Up to 160 whales became stranded on two beaches on Australia's southwest coast on Thursday after two pods beached themselves.

The false killer whales, most between four and five meters (13 to 16 feet) long, beached themselves near the coastal town of Busselton, 200km (125 miles) south of the western city of Perth.

"They are very large animals and are hard to move," said veterinarian Phil Rapton, as hundreds of rescuers tried desperately to push the whales back into the ocean.

"We are just waiting for heavy machinery to arrive to try and move them," Rapton told local media.

The Western Australian state Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) said none of the whales had died, but some were "copping a battering."

[leftchick]

1. I knew it would be NRDC!!!

Save the Whales...

http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp



Researchers have found that many humpback whales cease singing when exposed to an LFA sonar signal that is hundreds of miles distant.
Photo: Bill Lawton / NMML

[Divernan]

2. Yup! NRDC kicks butt(judicially speaking) to protect the environment!

NT