Active sonar, the transmission equipment used on some ships to assist with submarine detection, is detrimental to the health and livelihood of some marine animals.[1] Research has recently shown that beaked and blue whales are sensitive to mid-frequency active sonar and move rapidly away from the source of the sonar, a response that disrupts their feeding and can cause mass strandings.[2] Some marine animals, such as whales and dolphins, use echolocation or "biosonar" systems to locate predators and prey. It is conjectured that active sonar transmitters could confuse these animals and interfere with basic biological functions such as feeding and mating. The study has shown whales experience decompression sickness, a disease that forces nitrogen into gas bubbles in the tissues and is caused by rapid and prolonged surfacing. Although whales were originally thought to be immune to this disease, sonar has been implicated in causing behavioral changes that can lead to decompression sickness.[3]
History
The SOFAR channel (short for "sound fixing and ranging channel"), or deep sound channel (DSC),[4] is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean centered around the depth at which the speed of sound is at a minimum. The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating.[5] This phenomenon is an important factor in submarine warfare. The deep sound channel was discovered and described independently by Dr. Maurice Ewing, and Leonid Brekhovskikh in the 1940s.[6]
Despite the use of the SOFAR channel in naval applications, the idea that animals might make use of this channel was not proposed until 1971. Roger Payne and Douglas Webb calculated that before ship traffic noise permeated the oceans, tones emitted by fin whales could have traveled as far as four thousand miles and still be heard against the normal background noise of the sea. Payne and Webb further determined that, on a quiet day in the pre–ship-propeller oceans, fin whale tones would only have fallen to the level of background noise after traveling thirteen thousand miles, that is, more than the diameter of the Earth.
Early confusion between fin whales and military sonar
Before extensive research on whale vocalizations was completed, the low-frequency pulses emitted by some species of whales were often not correctly attributed to them. Dr Payne wrote: "Before it was shown that fin whales were the cause [of powerful sounds], no one could take seriously the idea that such regular, loud, low, and relatively pure frequency tones were coming from within the ocean, let alone from whales."[7] This unknown sound was popularly known by navy acousticians as the Jezebel Monster.[citation needed] (Jezebel was narrow-band passive long-range sonar.) Some researchers[who?] believed that these sounds could be attributed to geophysical vibrations or an unknown Russian military program, and it wasn't until biologists William Schevill and William A. Watkins proved that whales possessed the biological capacity to emit sounds that the unknown sounds were correctly attributed.[citation needed]
Low frequency sonar
The electromagnetic spectrum has rigid definitions for "super low frequency", "extremely low frequency", "low frequency" and "medium frequency". Acoustics does not have a similar standard. The terms "low" and "mid" have roughly-defined historical meanings in sonar, because not many frequencies have been used over the decades. However, as more experimental sonars have been introduced, the terms have become muddled.
American low frequency sonar was originally introduced to the general public in a June 1961 Time magazine article, NewA.S.W.[Note 1]Project Artemis, the low-frequency sonar used at the time, could fill a whole ocean with searching sound and spot anything sizable that was moving in the water. Artemis grew out of a 1951 suggestion by HarvardphysicistFrederick V. Hunt (Artemis is the Ancient Greek goddess of the hunt), who convinced Navy anti-submarine experts that submarines could be detected at great distances only by unheard-of volumes of low-pitched sound.[8] At the time, an entire Artemis system was envisioned to form a sort of underwater DEW (Distant Early Warning) line to warn the U.S. of hostile submarines. Giant, unattended transducers, powered by cables from land, would be lowered to considerable depths where sound travels best. The Time magazine article was published during the maiden voyage of the Soviet submarine K-19, which was the first Soviet submarine equipped with ballistic missiles. Four days later the submarine would have the accident that gave it its nickname. The impact on marine mammals by this system was certainly not a consideration. Artemis never became an operational system.
Low-frequency sonar was revived in the early 1980s for military and research applications. The idea that the sound could interfere with whale biologics became widely discussed outside of research circles when Scripps Institute of Oceanography borrowed and modified a military sonar for the Heard Island Feasibility Test conducted in January and February 1991.[9] The sonar modified for the test was an early version of SURTASS deployed in the MV Cory Chouest.[10] As a result of this test a "Committee on Low-Frequency Sound and Marine Mammals" was organized by the National Research Council. Their findings were published in 1994, in Low-Frequency Sound and Marine Mammals: Current Knowledge and Research Needs.[11]
Long-range transmission does not require high power. All frequencies of sound lose an average of 65dB in the first few seconds before the sound waves strike the ocean bottom[citation needed]. After that the acoustic energy in mid or high-frequency sound is converted into heat, primarily by the epsom salt dissolved in sea water.[12] Very little of low frequency acoustic energy is converted into heat, so the signal can be detected for long ranges. Fewer than five of the transducers from the low frequency active array were used in the Heard Island Feasibility Test, and the sound was detected on the opposite side of the Earth. The transducers were temporarily altered for this test to transmit sound at 50 hertz, which is lower than their normal operating frequency.
The term mid-frequency sonar is usually used to refer to sonars that project sound in the 3 to 4 kilohertz (kHz) range. Ever since the launch of the USSNautilus(SSN-571) on 17 January 1955[14] the US Navy knew it was only a matter of time until the other naval powers had their own nuclear submarines. The mid-frequency sonar was developed for anti-submarine warfare against these future boats. The standard post-WWII active sonars (which were usually above 7kHz) had an insufficient range against this new threat. Active sonar went from a piece of equipment attached to a ship, to a piece of equipment that was central to the design of a ship. They are described in the same 1961 Time magazine article by the quote "the latest shipboard sonar weighs 30 tons and consumes 1,600 times as much power as the standard postwar sonar".[8] A modern system produced by Lockheed Martin since the early 1980s is the AN/SQQ-89.[15] On June 13, 2001, Lockheed Martin announced that it had delivered its 100th AN/SQQ-89 undersea warfare system to the U.S. Navy.
There was anecdotal evidence that mid-frequency sonar could have adverse effects on whales dating back to the days of whaling. The following story is recounted in a book published in 1995:
Another innovation by the whalers was the use of sonar to track whales they were pursuing underwater. But there was a problem; as the boat gained on the whale, the whale started exhaling while still submerged. This produced a cloud of bubbles in the water that reflected sound better than the whale did and made a false target (akin to what a pilot does when releasing metal chaff to create a false radar echo). I suspect that this behavior by whales was simply fortuitous since exhaling while still submerged is simply a means by which a whale can reduce the time it has to remain at the surface, where surface drag will slow it down.
Whalers quickly discovered that a frequency of three thousand hertz seemed to panic the whales, causing them to surface much more often for air, This was a "better" use for sonar because it afforded the whalers more chances to shoot the whales. So they equipped their catcher boats with sonar at that frequency. Of course the sonar also allows the whalers to follow the whale underwater, but that is its secondary use. Its primary use is for scaring whales so that they start "panting" at the surface.[16]
In 1996 twelve Cuvier's beaked whales beached themselves alive along the coast of Greece while NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) was testing an active sonar with combined low and mid-range frequency transducers, according to a paper published in the journal Nature in 1998. The author established for the first time the link between atypical mass strandings of whales and the use of military sonar by concluding that although pure coincidence cannot be excluded there was better than a 99.3% likelihood that sonar testing caused that stranding.[17][18] He noted that the whales were spread along 38.2 kilometres of coast and were separated by a mean distance of 3.5km (sd=2.8, n=11). This spread in time and location was atypical, as usually whales mass strand at the same place and at the same time.
At the time that Dr. Frantzis wrote the article he was unaware of several important factors.
The time correlation was much tighter than he knew. He knew about the test from a notice to mariners which only published that the test would occur over a five-day period within a large area of the ocean. In fact the first time the sonar was turned on was the morning of 12 May 1996, and six whales stranded that afternoon. The next day the sonar was turned on again and another six whales stranded that afternoon. Without knowing the coordinates of the ships he would not have realized that the ship was only about 10–15 miles offshore.
The sonar being used in the test was an experimental research and development sonar, which was considerably smaller and less powerful than an operational sonar on board a deployed naval vessel. Dr Frantzis believed that wide distribution of the stranded whales indicated that the cause has a large synchronous spatial extent and a sudden onset. Knowing that the sound source level was fairly low (it was only 226dB (decibels) at 3kHz which is low compared to an operational sonar) would have made the damage mechanism even more puzzling.[19]
The experimental sonar used in the test, Towed Vertically Directive Source (TVDS) which had the dual 600Hz and 3kHz transducers, had been used for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily the year before in June 1995. Previous activated towed array sonar research using different sources on board the same ship included participation in NATO exercises "Dragon Hammer '92" and "Resolute Response '94".[20]
Since the source level of this experimental sonar was only 226dB at 3kHz re 1 uPa m, at only 100 meters the received level would drop by 40dB (to 186dB). A NATO panel investigated the above stranding and concluded the whales were exposed to 150-160dB re 1 μPa of low and mid-range frequency sonar. This level is about 55-65dB less (about a million times lower intensity) than the threshold for hearing damage specified at 215dB by a panel of marine mammal experts.[21]
The idea that a relatively low power sonar could cause a mass stranding of such a large number of whales was very unexpected by the scientific community. Most research had been focused on the possibility of masking signals, interference with mating calls, and similar biological functions. Deep diving marine mammals were species of concern, but very little definitive information was known. In 1995 a comprehensive book on the relation between marine mammals and noise had been published, and it did not even mention strandings.[22]
In 2013, research showed beaked whales were highly sensitive to mid-frequency active sonar.[2][23]Blue whales have also been shown to flee from the source of mid-frequency sonar,[24] while naval use of mid- and high- frequency side-scan sonar was deemed "the most probable cause" of a mass stranding of around 50 short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) on 9 June 2008 in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, UK.[25]
A review of evidence on the mass strandings of beaked whale linked to naval exercises where sonar was used was published in 2019. It concluded that the effects of mid-frequency active sonar are strongest on Cuvier's beaked whales but vary among individuals or populations, which may depend on whether the individuals had prior exposure to sonar, and that symptoms of decompression sickness have been found in stranded whales that may be due to their response to sonar. It noted that no more mass strandings had occurred in the Canary Islands once naval exercises where sonar was used were banned there, and recommended that the ban be extended to other areas where mass strandings continue to occur.[26][27]
Acoustically induced bubble formation
There was anecdotal evidence from whalers (see section above) that sonar could panic whales and cause them to surface more frequently making them vulnerable to harpooning. It has also been theorized that military sonar may induce whales to panic and surface too rapidly leading to a form of decompression sickness. In general trauma caused by rapid changes of pressure is known as barotrauma. The idea of acoustically enhanced bubble formation was first raised by a paper published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1996[28] and again Nature in 2003. It reported acute gas-bubble lesions (indicative of decompression sickness) in whales that beached shortly after the start of a military exercise off the Canary Islands in September 2002.[29]
In the Bahamas in 2000, a sonar trial by the United States Navy of transmitters in the frequency range 3–8 kHz at a source level of 223–235 decibels re 1 μPa m was associated with the beaching of seventeen whales, seven of which were found dead. Environmental groups claimed that some of the beached whales were bleeding from the eyes and ears, which they considered an indication of acoustically-induced trauma.[30] The groups allege that the resulting disorientation may have led to the stranding.[31]
Naval sonar-linked incidents
Worldwide, use of active sonar has been linked to about 50 marine mammal strandings between 1996 and 2006. In all of these occurrences, there were other contributing factors, such as unusual (steep and complex) underwater geography, limited egress routes, and a specific species of marine mammal — beaked whales — that are suspected to be more sensitive to sound than other marine mammals.
Since the 1990s, scientific research has been carried out on the effects of sonar on marine life. This scientific research is reported in peer reviewed journals and at international conferences such as The Effects of Sound on Marine Mammals[47] and The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life.[48]
A study on the effects of certain sonar frequencies on blue whales was published in 2013. Mid-frequency (1–10kHz) military sonars have been associated with lethal mass strandings of deep-diving toothed whales, but the effects on endangered baleen whale species were virtually unknown. Controlled exposure experiments, using simulated military sonar and other mid-frequency sounds, measured behavioral responses of tagged blue whales in feeding areas within the Southern California Bight. Despite using source levels orders of magnitude below some operational military systems, the results demonstrated that mid-frequency sound can significantly affect blue whale behavior, especially during deep feeding modes. When a response occurred, behavioral changes varied widely from cessation of deep feeding to increased swimming speed and directed travel away from the sound source. The variability of these behavioral responses was largely influenced by a complex interaction of behavioral state, the type of mid-frequency sound and received sound level. Sonar-induced disruption of feeding and displacement from high-quality prey patches could have significant and previously undocumented impacts on baleen whale foraging ecology, individual fitness and population health.[49]
On November 13, 2007, a United States appeals court restored a ban on the U.S. Navy's use of submarine-hunting sonar in training missions off Southern California until it adopted better safeguards for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. On 16 January 2008, President George W. Bush exempted the US Navy from the law and argued that naval exercises are crucial to national security. On 4 February 2008, a Federal judge ruled that despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, the Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on mid-frequency sonar. In a 36-page decision, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote that the Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act" and the court injunction creating a 12-nautical-mile (22km) no-sonar zone off Southern California.[52][53] On 29 February 2008, a three-judge federal appeals court panel upheld the lower court order requiring the Navy to take precautions during sonar training to minimize harm to marine life.[30] In Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council. the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the circuit court ruling in a 5:4 decision on 12 November 2008.
Mitigation methods
Environmental impacts of the operation of active sonar are required to be carried out by US law. Procedures for minimising the impact of sonar are developed in each case where there is significant impact.
The impact of underwater sound can be reduced by limiting the sound exposure received by an animal. The maximum sound exposure level recommended by Southall et al.[54] for cetaceans is 215dB re 1 μPa2 s for hearing damage. Maximum sound pressure level for behavioural effects is dependent on context (Southall et al.[54]).
In the US, a great deal of the legal and media conflict on this issue has to do with questions of who determines what type of mitigation is sufficient. Coastal commissions, for example, were originally thought to only have legal responsibility for beachfront property, and state waters (three miles into sea). Because active sonar is instrumental to ship defence, mitigation measures that may seem sensible to a civilian agency without any military or scientific background can have disastrous effects on training and readiness. The US Navy therefore often define their own mitigation requirements.[55]
Examples of mitigation measures include:
not operating at nighttime
not operating at specific areas of the ocean that are considered sensitive
slow ramp-up of intensity of signal to give cetaceans a warning
air cover to search for cetaceans
not operating when cetaceans are known to be within a certain range
onboard observers from civilian groups
using fish-finders to look for cetaceans in the vicinity
large margins of safety for exposure levels
not operating when dolphins are bow-riding
operations at less than full power
paid teams of veterans to investigate strandings after sonar operation.
Cetacea is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel themselves through the water with powerful up-and-down movement of their tail which ends in a paddle-like fluke, using their flipper-shaped forelimbs to maneuver.
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels.
Beaked whales are a family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least-known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat, reclusive behavior and apparent low abundance. Only three or four of the 24 existing species are reasonably well-known. Baird's beaked whales and Cuvier's beaked whales were subject to commercial exploitation, off the coast of Japan, while the northern bottlenose whale was extensively hunted in the northern part of the North Atlantic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Hubbs' beaked whale was initially thought to be an Andrews' beaked whale when discovered by ichthyologist Carl Hubbs; however, it was named in his honor when it was discovered to be a new species. This species has the typical dentition found in the genus, but its main outstanding features are a white "cap" on the head and very extensive scarring. The species is known from 31 strandings, a few at-sea sightings, and observations of two stranded whales that were kept in captivity for 16–25 days.
Blainville's beaked whale, or the dense-beaked whale, is believed to be the widest ranging mesoplodont whale. The French zoologist Henri de Blainville first described the species in 1817 from a small piece of jaw — the heaviest bone he had ever come across — which resulted in the name densirostris. Off the northeastern Bahamas, the animals are particularly well documented, and a photo identification project started sometime after 2002.
Cuvier's beaked whale, goose-beaked whale, or ziphius is the most widely distributed of all beaked whales in the family Ziphiidae. It is smaller than most baleen whales—and indeed the larger toothed cetaceans —yet it is large among the beaked whales and smaller cetaceans, appearing somewhat like a bigger and stockier bottlenose dolphin. Cuvier's beaked whale is pelagic, generally inhabiting waters deeper than 300 m (1,000 ft), though it has been observed closer to shore on occasion. In these offshore waters, Cuvier's beaked whale executes some of the deepest, longest recorded dives among whales, and extant mammals, at 2,992 m (9,816 ft), for 222 minutes. While likely diving to forage and hunt prey, such as cephalopods, and potentially evade predators, the frequency and exact reason for these extraordinary dives is unclear. Despite its deepwater habitat, it is one of the most frequently-spotted beaked whales when surfacing.
The four-toothed whales or giant beaked whales are beaked whales in the genus Berardius. They include Arnoux's beaked whale in cold Southern Hemispheric waters, and Baird's beaked whale in the cold temperate waters of the North Pacific. A third species, Sato's beaked whale, was distinguished from B. bairdii in the 2010s.
The northern bottlenose whale is a species of beaked whale in the ziphiid family, being one of two members of the genus Hyperoodon. The northern bottlenose whale was hunted heavily by Norway and Britain in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is one of the deepest-diving mammals known, reaching depths of 2,339 m (7,674 ft) and capable of diving for up to 130 minutes.
The pygmy killer whale is a poorly known and rarely seen oceanic dolphin. It is the only species in the genus Feresa. It derives its common name from sharing some physical characteristics with the orca, also known as the killer whale. It is the smallest cetacean species that has the word "whale" in its common name. Although the species has been known to be extremely aggressive in captivity, this aggressive behavior has not been observed in the wild.
The melon-headed whale, also known less commonly as the electra dolphin, little killer whale, or many-toothed blackfish, is a toothed whale of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). The common name is derived from the head shape. Melon-headed whales are widely distributed throughout deep tropical and subtropical waters worldwide, but they are rarely encountered at sea. They are found near shore mostly around oceanic islands, such as Hawaii, French Polynesia, and the Philippines.
Whales use a variety of sounds for communication and sensation. The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more dependent on sound than land mammals due to the limited effectiveness of other senses in water. Sight is less effective for marine mammals because of the way particulates in the ocean scatter light. Smell is also limited, as molecules diffuse more slowly in water than in air, which makes smelling less effective. However, the speed of sound is roughly four times greater in water than in the atmosphere at sea level. As sea mammals are so dependent on hearing to communicate and feed, environmentalists and cetologists are concerned that they are being harmed by the increased ambient noise in the world's oceans caused by ships, sonar and marine seismic surveys.
Cetacean stranding, commonly known as beaching, is a phenomenon in which whales and dolphins strand themselves on land, usually on a beach. Beached whales often die due to dehydration, collapsing under their own weight, or drowning when high tide covers the blowhole. Cetacean stranding has occurred since before recorded history.
A marine mammal observer (MMO) is a professional in environmental consulting who specializes in whales and dolphins.
The AN/UQQ-2 Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS), colloquially referred to as the ship's "Tail", is a towed array sonar system of the United States Navy.
Underwater acoustics is the study of the propagation of sound in water and the interaction of the mechanical waves that constitute sound with the water, its contents and its boundaries. The water may be in the ocean, a lake, a river or a tank. Typical frequencies associated with underwater acoustics are between 10 Hz and 1 MHz. The propagation of sound in the ocean at frequencies lower than 10 Hz is usually not possible without penetrating deep into the seabed, whereas frequencies above 1 MHz are rarely used because they are absorbed very quickly.
Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 555 U.S. 7 (2008), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court concerning whether federal law restricted the United States Navy's ability to use sonar during drills given the possibility of a harmful effect on marine mammals such as whales.
The SACLANT ASW Research Centre was the predecessor to the NATO Undersea Research Centre. It was known as The SACLANT ASW Research Centre from 1959 through 1986, and the SACLANT Undersea Research Centre from 1987 through 2003. The centre was commonly referred to as SACLANTCEN.
Kelly Benoit-Bird is a marine scientist and senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Benoit-Bird uses acoustics to study marine organisms and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010.
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is a Spanish marine biologist at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Canary Islands. She is a Ramón y Cajal research and teaching fellow at ULL and has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at ULL and at the Center for Research in Ecological Modeling (CREEM) of the University of St. Andrews (SMRU). She is the director of cetacean research within ULL's BIOECOMAC.
↑ Crum LA, Mao Y (9 October 1996). "Acoustically enhanced bubble growth at low frequencies and its implications for human diver and marine mammal safety". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 99 (5): 2898–907. Bibcode:1996ASAJ...99.2898C. doi:10.1121/1.414859. PMID8642113.
↑ Frantzis, Alexandros (2004). "The First Mass Stranding That Was Associated with the Use of Active Sonar (Kyparissiakos Gulf, Greece, 1996)". In Evans, Peter G.H.; Miller, Lee A. (eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Active Sonar and Cetaceans. European Cetacean Society. pp.14–20.
↑ Balcomb, K.C.; D.E. Claridge. "Mass Stranding of Cetaceans in the Bahamas Caused by Navy Sonar". Bahamas Journal of Science. 8(2001:2): 2–12.
↑ Freitas, L. (2004). Evans, Peter G.H.; Miller, Lee A. (eds.). The Stranding of Three Cuvier's Beaked Whales Ziphius Cavirostris in Madeira Archipelago – May 2000. European Cetacean Society. pp.28–32.
↑ Martin, V.; A. Servidio; S. Garcia (2004). "Mass Strandings of Beaked Whales in the Canary Islands". In Evans, Peter G.H.; Miller, Lee A. (eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Active Sonar and Cetaceans. European Cetacean Society. pp.33–36.
↑ Fernández, Antonio (2006-03-17). Beaked whale mass stranding on Almería's coasts in Southern Spain (26th-27th January 2006) (Report). University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
↑ Navy not exempt from California sonar curbs: judge - President George W. Bush should not have exempted the Navy from obeying laws intended to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals by curbing the use of sonar off the California coast, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
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