In these Waters
What is the Right Whale’s destiny? Their entire population of 350 whales is facing extinction at the hands of the US Navy, which is building a 500 square mile submarine warfare training range in their calving grounds.
WHAT ACTIVITIES USED in the SUB WARFARE TRAINING RANGE WILL HARM THE WHALES, DOLPHINS, MANATEES AND SEA TURTLES?
• Sonar from surface ships, Seahawk helicopters, and submarines
• Pile driving
• Underwater detonations
• Ship strikes from surface ships
• Using visual detection to spot whales, ineffective with Right Whales, which are dark in color and lack a dorsal fin
• Heavy cables on the ocean floor that can trap and drown the great Sea Turtles.
HOW DOES SONAR HARM WHALES?
Sound penetrates an animal’s body when immersed in water. This effect can cause tissue rupture and hemorrhage in the brains and ears of whales and dolphins.
Whales move through sound, vibration and instinct. Low-frequency sonar (LFA) makes a long lasting, fast traveling, extremely loud, screeching sound, which deafens whales and destroys their ability to navigate. This can lead to an early and painful death.
ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT WORKS
We now have satellites that provide world wide coverage, even in the vast stretches of our oceans. These non-sonar technologies are harmless to sea creatures, yet they can:
• Detect enemy subs
• Detect fault lines under the ocean
• Pinpoint small items within distances of two to three feet
• Detect whales and dolphins from planes or from a ship, using a cellphone app
THE NAVY WILL DESIGN A NEW CLASS OF SUBMARINES TO REPLACE THE AGING TRIDENT NUCLEAR SUBS. THE LEAD SUB WILL COST $90 BILLION.
HOW CAN WE URGE THE NAVY TO SWITCH FROM 20 YEAR OLD SONAR TECHNOLOGY TO NEW, HARMLESS SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY, UNDERWATER DRONES and WHALE DETECTION SOFTWARE TO REPLACE VISUAL DETECTION? HOW CAN WE URGE THEM TO BUILD THE NEW TECHNOLOGY INTO THIS $90 BILLION SUBMARINE?
Tell your friends and share on Email, Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social media site.
WRITE letters to NMFS/NOAA, the President, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, Florida Governor, Florida Governor Rick Scott , your Congressmen, and Editors of Atlanta Journal-Constitution and local papers in Georgia and Florida demanding that the Navy use modern technology, and practice simulation techniques instead of conducting war games in NOAA designated critical habitat like birthing grounds in routine training.
Six Facts on the Right Whale in our Waters
• NOAA requires ships from harbor captains to pleasure boats to the big freighters to slow to 10 knots to help avoid vessel strikes, * but the Navy refuses to adhere to any speed limit.
• The Navy will conduct war games continuously during birthing season, thus targeting the most vulnerable of the population.
• They planned to put this 500 square mile warfare training range on the North Carolina coast, but after 36 whales beached themselves off Nags Head, the people of NC mounted a protest campaign, with some 40,000 expressions of opposition.
• Perhaps not a fact, but a likely supposition: one of the reasons they are building it here is that the Navy has calculated that our population is too small to make that level of protest, and also that we are largely uninformed from lack of news coverage.
• More of a likely deduction than a hard fact: the Navy has calculated that Georgia coast residents will believe that what they are doing is necessary not only for a strong defense, but also for jobs and local prosperity. That may be true for Camden County, but for the entire coasts of Georgia and Northern Florida, collateral damage to tourism and fishing will likely offset any gains.
• Most compelling fact: NOAA has stated that the loss of even one Right Whale puts the entire population at risk. The 36 pilot whales stranded off the NC coast came from a population of many thousands, but if 36 Right Whales end up dead on our beaches, that will be more than 10% of their total population, worldwide, of only 350 whales. That means extinction for what NOAA has called the most critically endangered of the large whales.
Sources
• Application to NOAA for permit: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/incidental.htm
• US Navy Draft Environmental Impact Statement DEIS https:/ /portal.navfac.navy.mi
• Pinpoint small items within distances of two to three feet
• Admiral Cullom, Chief of Naval Operations N45, Director of Environmental Readiness Division, 2000 Navy Pentagon, Washington DC 20350