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Effects of active sonar on whales
Effects of active sonar on whales
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Nearly 500 whales beach themselves every year due to an excessive use of sonar. Military passive sonar (sound navigation and ranging) is killing and causing whales to avoid their major feeding and breeding grounds while temporarily deflecting from the high frequency sound coming from this unknown source. This event is raising hell in the political sector. Scientists have found many similarities between all the beached whales that have been in the same area that military sonar was being used. Military sonar is affecting the life of whales and their natural habitat for the worst.
Passive sonar allows military ships to detect submarines and other vessels without transmitting their own signals to other ships since World War I. Sonar allows a shipmate to be able to know the exact speed, coordinates, and how big the ship or submarine is. According to NOAA, “The technology steadily improved, and by World War II, was used once again for military purposes. Sonar is messing with the way whales communicate. In the 1960s, the development of digital computer technology made plotting of sonar data much easier”1 The military was going to try and communicate with whales but the whales were not found at their regular sites.
Many whales avoid breeding grounds and feeding areas in relation to several different species of whales being beached have had some kind of trauma beforehand. Scientists are starting to research and discover that most of them were bleeding around the brain and ears. Due to all of the naval ships in the area, people began to question if they had any part of the beaching. “Most previous attempts to determine whether military sonar use and whale strandings are correlated have looked at mass stranding records of beaked whales an...
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...der an immediate halt to any Navy training exercises. Instead, it requires the NOAA to re-evaluate the Navy permits under the terms of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.”5 sdf
(my opinion) I honestly do not care either way about military sonar simply because I agree with both sides of the argument. Yes it kills thousands of marine animals but it also allows the Navy to keep the people safe from any “ninja” submarines that might want to bomb the U.S. or what not and potentially kill millions. Military will continue to sonar.
Works Cited
3)http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&sid=5fc497ae-909a-4d43-9478-1c0934c849c5%40sessionmgr110&hid=118&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=48811457
4) Bohannon, John. "NATO Asked To Silence Sonar." Science 302.5645 (2003): 547. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Throughout the years submarine technology has advanced throughout the years from the original military submarine the turtle to the German u boats during WWII modern nuclear power submarines that we have today. These developments have required a lot of technological improvements. To make the u boats work the Germans need better battery and electrical motor technologies and the nuclear submarine obviously needed nuclear technology. Submarines have always been an innovative way to win the navel war.
In the thirty-eight years of the United States Naval Submarine Service no United States submarine had ever sunk an enemy vessel. With the ignition of the Second World War the poorly equipped and poorly trained Silent Service, nicknamed for the limited access of the media to the actions and achievements of the submarines, would be thrust into the position American submariners had longed for. The attack on Pearl Harbor left the United States Navy with few options for retribution. The three remaining aircraft carriers were to be “the last line of defense.” Commander Stuart S. Murray made the precarious situation clear to his skippers, captains, upon sending them on their first war patrol. He stressed the importance of smart sailing by warning them not “to go out there and win the Congressional Medal of Honor in one day. The submarines are all we have left.” We entered the war with 55 submarines, 27 at Pearl Harbor and 28 at Cavite in the Philippines. At first our submarine strategies lacked ingenuity and failed to use our subs to their full potential. United States subs were assigned to reconnaissance, transporting supplies, and lifeguard duty, picking up downed airmen and sailors. They were even, on occasion, sent to rescue high profile Americans on the run from the enemy or from islands under enemy siege. Although their ability was, unfortunately, wasted in our entrance to the Pacific Theater the Silent Service would soon gain the recognition its men yearned for.
Robert L. Pitman. "Whalewatcher: Killer Whale: The top, top Predator ." Journal of the American Cetacean Society (2011): 2. Journal.
Currently, live whale performances have become well liked for tourists to visit. When they are there, they only see what they want to see and do not care or want to know all about the complications the whales go through just to make people smile. The documentary “Blackfish” exposes the truth about the whales, their habits, and why they act the manner they do when in captivity. The inhumane treatment of whales in captivity causes negative effects on the animals which, in turn, affects the humans who care for them.
“Whales provide us with the food for our bodies, bones for our tools and implements and spirits for our souls.” “We haven’t hunted the whale for 70 years but have hunted them in our hearts and in our minds.” “Whales are a central focus of our culture today as they have been from the beginning of time.”
...t was not for these precursors then the continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare might still be a threat to the vessels that now transport hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe.
In the past twenty years a large amount of bottlenose dolphin have been killed due to the tuna fishery. In the Eastern Pacific swim large schools of tuna, these shoals tend to be under herds of dolphins, for some unexplained reason. Because of this, fishermen can easily find schools of tuna. The tuna are being caught under purse seine nets, which encircles the shoals of tuna and then is pulled back on board the fishing vessel, catching both tuna and dolphin. Initially the mortality rate was 500,000 each year for dolphins alone. Although some efforts are made to encourage the dolphins to leave the net by backing down part of the net, which allows the dolphins to escape, there are still a large number of mortalities (Bryant). On the other hand, in the last few years there has been dramatic progress in stopping the fishing industries from using purse sine nets. It has been found that dolphins are in immediate danger of extinction if these fishing techniques don’t stop.
When an intelligent animal accustomed to swimming in thousands of miles of open ocean is placed in an environment only twice its size, is separated from its species, and is forced to perform tricks, there are bound to be consequences. The captivity of these animals should be banned and National Reserves and whale tours should be used to educate the public while admiring these animals' true beauty. There are few experiences more meaningful than witnessing a killer whale enjoying the freedom of the open ocean.
The quest to gain international agreement on ethical and legal norms for regulation of whaling has had a long and troubled history. The modern phase of global concern over whaling ethics and conservationist management originated in 1946, when the International Convention on Regulation of Whaling was signed. Thus, the International Whaling Commission was created. The International Whaling Commission was designed to control and mandate the whaling industry. From it’s beginning as simply a whalers club with scientific guidance, to the current day conservationist body, the IWC has undergone many revisions and transformations since the start.
“… building a tank the size of Rhode Island wouldn’t be large enough for a six-ton male killer whale such as Tilikum, an animal capable of swimming 100 miles a day,” states an anonymous whale expert. Whales have been in captivity since 1861 when P.T. Barnum displayed the first live whale that was captured in Canada. However, Barnum had no idea how to care for the mammal and it died after only a week in captivity. (Animal Legal and Historical Center, 2014) Being up close with killer whales could give us some clues about how they interact with each other, including physical behavior, their dialect, and how their pods work together as a family unit. However, what we are finding is that whales who belong in the wild are suffering in captivity. Killer whales have no record of ever harming a human being in the wild. In captivity, there have been many incidents of killer whales harming or even killing their trainers. What would cause them to do this in captivity, but not in the wild? They have been known to resort to aggression toward themselves and each other, in what scientist believe to be a stress induced behavior. (Animal Legal and Historical Center, 2014) Evidence against having these wild animals in captivity is increasing and we need reevaluate the value of capturing and holding killer whales for our educational purposes, enjoyment, and profit.
Francis, David R. “Communities of Killer Whales.” The Christian Science Monitor. National Newspapers Core, 15
The Makah’s seemingly domestic issue of whaling has and is taking on a larger international problem. The United States plays a large part in policing the hunting of whales, one of the most recent examples being the U.S.’s ...
You’re sailing in a whale watching boat in the big blue open water of the Northern Pacific Ocean. You spot a lonely seal on an iceberg and then suddenly a fast wave approaches it. The seal slips off the iceberg and falls into the mouths of two generations of hungry Orcas. Killer Whales which are widely distributed in the world’s ocean, but the status of most populations of killer whales is unknown (Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)). But soon the killer whale will become rare and vanish if we don’t do something remarkably fast.
Looking at Figure C, we can say more than 200,000 blue whales has been killed as results of overhunting. In 1966, the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling for blue whales, but illegal hunting still occurs (NOAA). While blue whales are no longer being threatened by overhunting, their population is drastically depleted. Like many other marine species, blue whales are being harm by many others factors today. This include collisions of ships, chemical pollution such as oil spills, and noise pollution from vessels (Eco). The population of blue whales is known to be around “10,000 to 25,000 ” (World Wild Life).
Hackmann, Willem Dirk. “SONAR.” Encyclopedia of World War II. Vol. 2. New York: Facts on File, 2007. Modern World History Online. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. .