International News And Other Busyness

US Navy Sinks To New Depths

Sonar weapon experiments conducted on whales and dolphins

Squall 16, Summer 1998, pg. 38.

Weapons experiments by the US Navy have been linked to the deaths of sea mammals, including dolphins, according to environmentalists in Europe and the USA.

Using high-tech sound equipment which broadcasts frequencies 10,000 times louder than a 747 taking off, the US Navy has openly admitted to using Humpback whales as part of its gruesome experiments. The results will go towards establishing a sound-based defence system which could see 80 per cent of the world's oceans rigged up with intense frequency equipment.

Invading an internationally recognised Humpback Whale sanctuary off the coast of Hawai'i, naval boats tested equipment on the passive creatures to gauge at what stages they showed 'acute signs of distress' and what kind of 'behavioural changes' they displayed having experienced extremely loud sonic blasts.

Several whale calves have been found dead or dying on the island's nearby beaches having been abandoned by distressed mothers after birth.

Hawaian-based ecological groups were particularly concerned as the experiments took place during the Humpback whale mating season and stated in an e-mail that 'the whales were dirven out of the testing area en mass.... after a two week period most of them had left'.

Angered by what they see as a blatant act of military-backed environmental terrorism, local groups attempted to block the deadly experiments through the courts, but four lawsuits failed to get the required restraining order they were seeking. In desperation local activists took to the sea and mounted a brave sea blockade which, along with an intensive call, fax and e-mail bombardment on government departments, is credited with having brought the tests to an early conclusion.

The news comes alongside growing evidence that the US Navy has been conducting tests on dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea where the blown-up bodies of 200 of the sea creatures were found washed up on beaches in Greece.