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-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the louder-than-spinal-tap dept.

The Guardian reports [theguardian.com]

A federal appeals court ruled on [July 15] that the US Navy was wrongly allowed to use sonar in the nation's oceans [which can injure whales, dolphins, seals, and walruses and disrupt their feeding and mating.] [theguardian.com].

The ninth circuit court of appeals reversed a lower court decision upholding approval granted in 2012 for the Navy to use low-frequency sonar for training, testing, and routine operations.

[...]The 2012 rules adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service permitted Navy sonar use to affect about 30 [species of] whales and two dozen [species of] pinnipeds (marine mammals with front and rear flippers such as seals and sea lions) each year.

The Navy was required to shut down or delay sonar use if a marine mammal was detected near the ship. Loud sonar pulses also were banned near coastlines and in certain protected waters.

[...]The appellate court ruled 3-0 that the approval rules failed to meet a section of the [Marine Mammal Protection Act] requiring peacetime oceanic programs to have "the least practicable adverse impact on marine mammals".

Scientific American continues [scientificamerican.com]

Sonar systems--first developed by the U.S. Navy to detect enemy submarines--generate slow-rolling sound waves topping out at around 235 decibels; the world's loudest rock bands top out at only 130. These sound waves can travel for hundreds of miles under water and can retain an intensity of 140 decibels as far as 300 miles from their source.

These rolling walls of noise are no doubt too much for some marine wildlife. While little is known about any direct physiological effects of sonar waves on marine species, evidence shows that whales will swim hundreds of miles, rapidly change their depth (sometime leading to bleeding from the eyes and ears), and even beach themselves to get away from the sounds of sonar.

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