US sued over Navy sonar tests in whale waters..

[Bunnylady]

I was thinking of when they tried to weaponize Bubonic plague. Talk about nuts!

One word. Anthrax.


Doesn't get much crazier than that.

 

[JD4570]

I have one word for you "Ebola". That was man made too.

It's a form of necrotising faceitus, or flesh eating bacteria that works from the inside out.

 

[Matthew3590]

Like the new bird flu virus that has been developed in ferrets.

They can use it on humans and it can now be airborn.

 

[Nitrous]

Although it's treating the symptom, not the problem, I wish we could fix whatever is ailing the whales, that causes them to beach. Are their ears screaming in pain? Is their equilibrium so thrown off, they are unbelievably nauseous? Do they beach because they are afraid, in their broken condition, they will be eaten by sharks and would rather beach to die, than be slaughtered?

Wish I knew.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

Although it's treating the symptom, not the problem, I wish we could fix whatever is ailing the whales, that causes them to beach. Are their ears screaming in pain? Is their equilibrium so thrown off, they are unbelievably nauseous? Do they beach because they are afraid, in their broken condition, they will be eaten by sharks and would rather beach to die, than be slaughtered?

Wish I knew.

It is an easy fix...don't use the sonar where cetaceans are known to be. There are other places besides the waters marine life use for breeding, feeding, and migrations.

 

[Mattemma]

The US will do what they want and no lawsuit will stop them.Shoot,if they can invade countries while the world does not support them then they certainly will continue their sonar work. It is not like they don't have the money(ours) to pay lawyers to handle cases like this,

 

[OldGuy43]

And yet everyone keeps ignoring my question, "How many of these "save the whales" groups use sail exclusively and how many use something with an engine and a propeller?" Hit to close to home? Noise is noise.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is an easy fix...don't use the sonar where cetaceans are known to be. There are other places besides the waters marine life use for breeding, feeding, and migrations.

I've worked offshore where we were not allowed to do certain things if turtles, whales, dolphins, or other specific things were present. Things like using explosives to salvage structures. The range we had to worry about was pretty limited. The shock waves from explosives only do harm a certain distance. I worked for an oil company. I had to justify to my management any expense to protect any marine animals and the regulations were the only real justification I could use. It was purely business. But management was also adamant that all regulations were followed. Some of the contractors we hired were not always as clear about that as we wanted. That was a big part of why I was there and why we had inspectors watching the contractors 24 hours a day. The oil company would get all the publicity and blame if the contractor did not follow the regulations.

We were required to hire a professional "turtle watcher". This was someone from a government approved certified agency that would sit on the deck of the barge during practically all daylight hours, looking through binoculars for any protected species to show up. Talk about boring!!! If anything was spotted, we shut down for 24 hours. If we could do other things not involving the restricted activities, we would, but often we were just shut down. Can you imagine the cost of housing, feeding, and paying salaries for well over 100 people, plus the hire of tugboats, crew boats, and helicopters and maintaining and running the equipment? Turtle watch was serious stuff.

I'm going through all this to say, in my opinion, it is not easy to know where cetaceans are. We had a very limited area we were concerned with and that was hard to really cover. I'm not sure what the range is, but I'm pretty sure sonar covers a whole lot bigger area. I'd expect technology has improved in spotting certain life forms, but I still think it is really hard to know what is where.

From my time working for an oil company in that environment and my time in the military nowhere near water and nowhere near being an officer, I expect the regulations will be followed by the Navy. If those regulations require them to look for certain wildlife before they start testing, they will. If those regulations require them to avoid certain breeding areas during certain times of the year, they will. But if the regulations do not put restrictions on them, they will test as planned. I'd expect the Navy to consider it a waste of government money if someone delayed an expensive test without being able to justify it according to regulations, just as the Navy or the oil company I once worked for will be pretty knit-picky about following the regulations.

I am not in the Navy nor am I a private contractor involved in Sonar testing. I am not a marine biologist with specific knowledge about the effects of Sonar on certain animals. I'm not going to base an opinion on one internet article. I think we all know how unreliable anything on the internet can be, including my post right now. I may be totally BS'ing you. How would you know? I don't know if that group that is supposedly filing or considering filing a lawsuit has any basis in law to file it or maybe even win it. I do not know what the regulations about that testing really are. That article could be a total misrepresentation of what the Navy is doing or required to do. There's a lot I don't know. I'm not an expert in this field, but I think I have some perspective. I don't put animal rights above human rights, but I also don't see any benefit to causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Anyway, just my opinion.

 

[Ridgerunner]

And yet everyone keeps ignoring my question, "How many of these "save the whales" groups use sail exclusively and how many use something with an engine and a propeller?" Hit to close to home? Noise is noise.

Why is this relevant? Some "Save the Whale" groups are pretty fanatical and I don't agree with those groups, yet some are reasonable. Much like some of us older guys may automatically be considered Dirty Old Men just because we are old. While I feel that Dirty Old Men occasionally need some loving too, I don't lump us all together any more than I lump all people in conservation efforts together.

Noise is noise, but Sonar in a specific testing use is different than a propeller moving a regular ship. I did not see anything in that article other than sonar testing off the west coast. And I did not see anything about stopping the testing or preventing the testing, just something about considering the whales in deciding where and when to test. Apples and oranges.

 

[call ducks]

I am ok with the group suing them. I think that this should not be allowed around whales. Whales as i am sure you know use Sonar to locate and swim. So just going by what very little i know would the sonar testing not effect the whales? Confusing them? I must add that i do not agree with all actions (ok 99%) of groups that save the whales or what ever they call them selfs. However this is one action that i agree with.... Odd