THE US Navy has admitted for the first time that the sonar used by its ships
can injure whales and dolphins.
In a joint report issued last month with the National Marine Fisheries
Service, the Navy has accepted that its sonar caused the beaching of 16 whales
in the northern Bahamas in March 2000. But it maintains that the whales were the
victims of unusual circumstance. It says the animals were swimming in the
confined waters of the Providence Channel, which uniquely concentrated a range
of sonar sounds used in training exercises in the area.
All the dead animals autopsied…
