Whale beachings in the Canary Islands have ceased after the Spanish government outlawed sonar testing in that territory, said Susan Millward, a marine science expert at the International Ocean Noise Coalition.
Ms Millward was making the case against sonar testing at a press conference on Sunday along with Dr Marsha Greene, president and founder of the Ocean Mammal Institute.
The two women are in The Bahamas to shed more light on the effects of sonar, which has been blamed for the deaths of five whales in Bahamian waters between February and April. Whale beachings had been a major problem in the Canary Islands since 1985, peaking at 24 during 1989. But when the Spanish government enacted a law in 2004, banning sonar testing within 50 miles of the Canary Islands, the beachings stopped, Millard said.
Dr Green added that the European parliament also passed a resolution in 2004 for the immediate cessation of the use of high intensity sonar in the region’s waters.
“We’re certainly working at the international level,” said Dr Green, “and that’s why I think it’s important for your country to get involved at the international level, because there is going to be increasing pressure from the international community to protect the oceans from intense ocean noise.”
“The regional seas agreement come under the UN (United Nations) and we’ve been working at the UN for a number of years now,” she added. “And we finally have gotten the UN General Assembly to recognise ocean noise as an issue that needs to be studied more.”
A number of Andros residents have blamed the whale beachings on that island (three out of the five) on sonar testing conducted at the U.S. military base (AUTEC) in Fresh Creek. However, Deputy Chief of Missions at the US Embassy, Dr Brent Hardt said that conclusion could not be drawn scientifically.
But Dr Greene said while she was doing research on the effects of engine noise on whales, she found that the US navy was going to test a kind of sonar called “low frequency active sonar” (LFA) on the humpback whales in Hawaii.
“And I knew it was very much louder than the engine noise so I knew it would have harmful effects,” said Dr Green who had been working on the issue since 1998. “Low frequency active sonar ping in the Pacific Ocean from one vessel could be heard over the entire North Pacific Ocean,” she added.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
