ANOMALOUS STRANDINGS ARE INCREASING GLOBALLY
CETACEANS LIVE IN A WORLD OF SOUND
LFA CAN CREATE A 'KILL ZONE THE SIZE OF TEXAS'
"I JUST NUKED A WHOLE POD OF DOLPHINS...50 POINTS!"
LFA SONAR AND SEISMIC TESTING USE IDENTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
NAVAL 'PLAYGROUND' OFF COASTAL USA
THIS IS HOW WE ARE WAGING WAR ON CETACEANS
THE FUTURE OF MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION
MEANWHILE WE ARE KILLING OUR BEST FRIENDS ON THE PLANET
"We strongly believe that if the
Navy will be allowed to proceed with its plans it will result in
catastrophic consequences for marine life off both coasts: East Coast
and West Coast."
NOTE FROM JEFF: This posting is a last-minute effort to elicit some comments from anyone out there who is concerned about the global situation with our friends and family in the seas, the whales and dolphins. In another day or two the window closes for the branch of the NOAA who supposedly 'oversees' the environmental activities of the U.S. Navy to hear comments from the public concerning 'permits' to be granted to the Navy to 'take' millions of marine mammals, legally and with impunity. 'Take' means 'kill' in no uncertain terms. It's really no more than a ludicrous 'dog and pony show' because, according to StrandedNoMore (with whom I am in close touch and who I regard as being THE top source of reality-based cetacean threat information), the NOAA has NEVER refused a permit request to the Navy. Why? Because the Navy owns and operates the NOAA. This is only one of many inter-related stories that desperately need to be told.
In a few days I will be posting a major 'free lance intelligence update' with a big section on the oceans and cetaceans. A LOT is going on, and most of it is not good, but some meager progress IS being made in terms of getting the dangers posed to cetaceans by seismic testing for hydro-carbons on to the public radar. Recently oceanographic luminary Jean-Michel Cousteau came out with a statement against seismic testing. The bigger picture, however, is that even naval sonar and seismic testing aren't the real problem, just as the existence of the military-industrial complex isn't the real problem...the REAL problem is that ALL of these things are being done by human beings. If we really wanted to we could choose to STOP DOING all these destructive things. The real mystery, the question of the ages is, 'So why don't we?" Why indeed?
PLEASE take the time to assimilate the information below, and PLEASE take the time to send an email or 100 to the NOAA and make them aware that we're onto their scam and might do more than sign petitions! Of particular note is the post from StrandedNoMore...you can friend them on Facebook, too.
Here is a comprehensive article I wrote that is in the current issue of Uncensored magazine:
"We Are Not Alone...Yet: How We Are Waging War on a True 'Extra-terrestrial Intelligence' "
And here is the trailer to the 'beyond film' that we're working on, based on the article above:
'AIHE TOHORA PAIKEA WANANGA' (The Knowledge and Wisdom of Whales and Dolphins)
MY EMAIL OF TODAY TO MR. PAYNE OF NOAA:
Dear Mr. Payne, I strongly and urgently insist that you do everything in your power to stop this entire charade of the Navy requesting...and always being granted...'permits' to 'take' marine mammals. We all know that the Navy owns and operates the NOAA as well as the NMFS; we all know that 'take' means 'kill.' Why does the Navy even bother with this whole process...it's going to do whatever it wants to do anyway?
In the same way that gradual progress is being made to create public awareness about the extreme dangers of seismic testing to the health and well-being of marine mammals, gradual progress is also being made in creating public awareness about the fact that the U.S. Navy is THE single greatest threat to the health and well-being of all marine life on this planet. Public awareness of the fact that you and the NOAA actually work for the Navy, as do over 90% of all 'marine biology' researchers, is growing little by little.
The fact that the entire 'war on terror' is really just a cover for imperial mobilization, and that the Navy basically works for 'big oil' is also becoming increasingly well-known.
Even high-visibility mainstream 'environmental activists' like Jean-Michel Cousteau are beginning to speak out against seismic testing. Below you will find the text of a recent statement he made. If you substitute 'active sonar' for 'seismic testing' you have exactly the same scenario.
To preserve your own dignity and integrity as a human being, as well as to lighten the increasingly negative karma you are accumulating from being a part of this extremely destructive charade, I recommend that you 1) do your best do deny this and any future permits 2) do your best to eliminate this entire fraudulent process and 3) get another job that is honest and that helps to nurture life on our planet, not destroy her.
Ours is the only planet we know who has life.
CETACEANS NOT MUTATIONS
JEFF PHILLIPS
NEW SITE TO CREATE AWARENES OF THREATS TO CETACEANS
http://www.whaleanddolphinwatch.com/
Rosalind Peterson LIVE Report: US NAVY Massacre 11.7 Million Marine Mammals at stake!
ROSALIND PETERSON'S MAIN SITE
http://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/content/us-navy
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonarvideo/video.asp
http://oceana.org/en/news-media/press-center/press-releases/oceana-and-nrdc-to-conduct-mock-seismic-airgun-test-outside-department-of-the-interior-bu
'Sounds of the Sea' Excellent doco about naval sonar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZv--KvvN2Q
To watch 'Sounds' in entirety and another doco on seismic testing:
http://anthro-media.com/projects/nature/01.html
http://anthro-media.com/projects/nature/06.html
STATEMENT FROM JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU
http://www.oceanfutures.org/news/press-releases/statement-diablo-canyon-seismic-testing-too-much-risk
AND HERE IS A
SIMILAR STATEMENT FROM ANDREW SHARPLESS, CEO OF OCEANA
'A deaf whale is a dead whale'
MESSAGE FROM STRANDEDNOMORE:
Info on BOEM permit for 'big oil' to do seismic testing in Atlantic
http://strandednomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/the-us-east-coast-can-kiss-its-marine-life-goodbye/
Our Comments on the Insane US Navy’s Applications That Will Result in Catastrophic Impact on Marine Life
November 5, 2012 is a deadline for public comments on 3 permits that are currently being considered by NOAA. We strongly believe that if the Navy will be allowed to proceed with its plans it will result in catastrophic consequences for marine life off both coasts: East Coast and West Coast. Below are our comments that will be submitted in regard to these applications. Please feel free to use any information, data and references below for your own comments and please consider commenting, it is VERY IMPORTANT.
Some information about applications and permits. Currently, NOAA has
3 applications from the Navy and you will need to comment on each of
them (link).
Two applications are about testing range off the East Coast and one is
about testing range in Hawaii/California. The permit applications are
huge and very hard to read, for that reason you can use some of our
points but also consider to add you own points if you would like. These
permit applications are always written in utmost unreadable and
convoluted way possible.
Application #1. 2012 U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Activities (AFTT). The application itself is here (link). The info about commenting is here (link). If you are going to comment on this application please email your comments to:
Michael Payne, Chief,
Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver
Spring, MD 20910-3225.
email: ITP.Hopper@noaa.gov
Subject: 2012 U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Activities (AFTT)
Application #2. 2012 U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet
Training and Testing Activities (AFTT). The application itself is here
and it appears to be similar in at elast some way to the Application #1
(link). The info about commenting is here (link)
If you are going to comment of this application please email your comments to:
Michael Payne, Chief,
Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver
Spring, MD 20910-3225.
email: ITP.Hopper@noaa.gov
Subject: 2012 U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Activities (AFTT)
Application #3. 2012 U.S. Navy Hawaii Southern California Training and Testing Activities (HSTT). The application itself is here (link). The info about commenting is here (link)
If you are going to comment of this application please email your comments to:
Michael Payne, Chief,
Permits and Conservation Division, Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver
Spring, MD 20910-3225.
email: ITP.Magliocca@noaa.gov
Subject: 2012 U.S. Navy Hawaii Southern California Training and Testing Activities (HSTT)
Here is our comment, feel free to use it!
To:
P. Michael Payne,
Chief, Permits and Conservation Division,
Office of Protected Resources,
National Marine Fisheries Service,
1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
November 4, 2012
From: StrandedNoMore
Dear Mr. Payne,
There are currently 3 permits being considered by NOAA that will
give the US Navy unprecedented ability to cause catastrophic level
extinction event for marine life on both coasts: the East Cost and the
West Coast.
With every passing day we have more and more reports on stranded
whales and dolphins and the majority of these events have anthropogenic
causes regardless of what the Navy wants the public to believe. We urge
you to deny permits for all 3 applications based on two main premises:
a) The Navy greatly underestimates the impact of its activities
b) The Navy uses complete chaos in the stranding response field
both in the US and worldwide to hide the true extent of damage their
activities result in.
Here are some specific points we would like to make in regard to above premises.
1. The Navy greatly underestimates the impact of its activities
1.1. None of the applications cites crucial recent studies and such
omission of scientific data allows the Navy greatly underestimate the
true impact of their activities.
1.2. For example the section “6.1.1.3.4 Physiological Stress”
completely omits an important study by Lyamin et al. published in 2011
that indicated that beluga whale started showing extremely troubling
physiological response at significantly lower levels: “Our data
indicate that severe tachycardia developed in the beluga at lower noise
intensities (as low as 140 dB); at higher intensities, the HR could
reach a twofold excess over the control values and last for no less
than 4 min” (p. 278). This study was not even mentioned in current
applications.
1.3. The section “6.1.1.4 Behavioral Responses ” completely omits
information on behavioral triggers for mass strandings and the fact
that strandings could indeed be a behavioral response to anthropogenic
sounds, not just sonar but also missiles, rockets, explosives and even
aircraft noise. Several studies are not mentioned in this regard,
specifically 2 applications do not mention the well-documented case of
nearstarnding of melon-headed whales in Hawaii (possibly caused by
military sonar) which most likely was a behavioral response to
anthropogenic noise (Brownell et al., 2009). Additionally very
important review on how cetaceans have been historically hunted with
sound and have been demonstrating strong avoidance of sounds that has a
potential to lead to a stranding event (Brownell et al., 2008) has not
been mentioned as well. There is also no discussion of how
anthropogenic sound can act as an acoustic barrier (link)
1.4. The section “6.1.2.1.4 Bubble Formation” does not include very
important recent study by De Quirós et al (2012) that demonstrated that
decompression related bubbles can indeed be distinguished from
decomposition bubbles.
1.5. The section “6.1.2.7 Stranding” does not include any discussion
about possibility that mass stranding could be purely behavioral
response and how in that case no evident pathology will be present
apart from stranding related issues.
1.6. In the same section where it is said that “ In comparison to
potential strandings or injury resulting from events associated with
Navy activities, marine mammal strandings and injury from commercial
vessel ship strike, impacts from urban pollution, and annual
fishery‐related bycatch have been estimated to be orders of magnitude
greater” (p. 146). This is misleading statement because no one knows
how many marine mammals perish at sea as a result of Navy activities
never to be seen again or counted. For example the experimental study
that did controlled carcasses release offshore found that only 8% of
experimentally released carcasses made it to shore. The model that was
made based on data predicted that that only carcasses that have
positive buoyancy will drift and wash ashore. The carcasses with
negative buoyancy will sink and decompose. (Peltier et al., 2012)
1.7. The applications do not mention many past and recent mass
strandings worldwide that have been linked to Navy activities,
including Cornwall mass strandings (link), unusual mortality event in Cape Cod, MA in January 2012 coincided with Navy activities (link), mass strandings in Florida, Cape Verde (link) and New Zealand (link) that all were associated closely in time and space with “hazardous operations” done by the military.
1.8. The applications do not mention pervasive conflict of interests
resulting from the Navy using studies done by scientists that have been
funded by the Navy (Weilgart et al., 2005; Wade et al., 2010)
1.9. The applications do not mention very important recent study
showing severe disturbance at very low sound levels. Study by Miller et
al., 2011 indicated that killer whales stopped feeding at playback of
sonar sounds of 93 dB re: 1µPa and whales started to show the avoidance
at 98 dB re: 1µPa.
2. The Navy uses complete chaos in the stranding response
field both in the US and worldwide to hide what their activities truly
result in.
2.1. Stranding field is chronically underfunded and understaffed and
for that reason many strandings go down either without detailed
investigation or with only some marginal investigation such as tissue
sampling for example.
2.2. Information about exact locations and types of Navy activities
is obscure and hard to find and stranding response team rarely request
such information.
2.3. Some testing is time sensitive (such as decompression sickness
related embolism) and often cannot be done in timely manner due to lack
of resources and trained personnel.
2.4. All of the abovefactors result in situation where it is
impossible to connect Navy activities to strandings not because such
connections are absent, but because there are no resources or personnel
to establish such connections.
2.5. All of the above also indicates that the Navy and by extension
NOAA/NMFS greatly underestimate the effects of Navy activities on
marine mammals.
Finally, there is another serious issue that has not been mentioned
in the applications. Specifically, the same area off the Atlantic cost
will also be open to seismic surveys exploration (link).
Navy’s application does not contain any assessment what cumulative
effects such activities will have on marine mammals that sadly will get
double exposure to the strongest anthropogenic sound sources at the
same time.
We urge you to reconsider giving the Navy permits because it will
have detrimental if not completely catastrophic impact on marine life
off East and West Coasts.
Sincerely,
StrandedNoMore
References:
Bernaldo De Quirós, Y., González-Diaz, O., Arbelo, M., Sierra,
E., Sacchini, S., and Fernández, A. (2012). Decompression vs.
Decomposition: Distribution, Amount, and Gas Composition of Bubbles in
Stranded Marine Mammals. Frontiers in Physiology 3.
Brownell, R. L. et al., (2009), Behavior of melon-headed whales,
Peponocephala electra, near oceanic islands, Marine Mammal Science,
25(3), 639-658. Available at http://cetus.ucsd.edu/Publications/Publications/BrownellMMS2009.pdf
Brownell, R.L. et al., (2008), Hunting cetaceans with sound: a
worldwide review, J. CETACEAN RES. MANAGE. 10(1):81–88. Available athttp://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1086&context=usdeptcommercepub
Lyamin O.I., Korneva, S.M., Rozhnov, V.V., Mukhametov, L.M. (2011),
Cardiorespiratory Changes in Beluga in Response to Acoustic Noise,
Doklady Biological Sciences, Vol. 440, pp. 275–278, 704-707. Available
at http://beluga.sevin-expedition.ru/netcat_files/106/57/11_Lyamin_ECG_acoustic_noise_beluga_DAN_E.pdf
Miller et al., 2011, Developing dose-response relationships for the
onset of avoidance of sonar by free-ranging killer whales(Orcinus
orca), Paper presented at the 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology
of Marine Mammals, November, 2011, Tampa, FL, USA.
Wade et al., 2010, Conflict of interest in research on anthropogenic
noise and marine mammals: Does funding bias conclusions? Marine Policy,
34, 320-327.
Weilgart L, Whitehead H, Rendell L, Calambokidis J. (2005),
Signal-to-noise: funding structure versus ethics as a solution to
conflict-of-interest. Marine Mammal Science, 21:779–81
