 INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHAT LED TO WHALE DEATHS Palm Beach Post -- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 By: William M. Hartnett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer A pair of beaked whales found beached this weekend in Indian River County will be tested to determine whether their health problems were related to an underwater Navy exercise off the coast of Jacksonville. Such deep-diving whales are rarely found in coastal waters, much less stranded on a beach, researchers say. While the Navy tests are drawing extra scrutiny because of other recent mass strandings of the same species, scientists say it's unlikely the whales' illness was related to the exercise. Residents of the area near Indian River Shores spotted the whales, which have long, narrow snouts, about 1:30 Sunday morning, said Chris Smith, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service's southeast region. An adult female that weighed as much as a ton and measured 13 feet in length was dead by the time a team from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution arrived, said Greg Bossart, the organization's director of marine mammal research. A young male found about 100 yards away was still alive but in such poor condition that Bossart euthanized the 1,500-pound, 10-foot long whale. Necropsies performed on both whales indicated they were in generally ill health. The male had a skeletal muscle disorder and mild liver disease, Bossart said. It is unclear why the whales were in such bad shape. "Both whales showed extreme signs of emaciation and malnutrition," Smith said. "Indications are neither whale had eaten for a week or more." The heads of both whales were removed and sent to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts for examination. Such steps are taken whenever the possibility exists that man-made sounds have damaged a whale's hearing. Whales and dolphins "see" both through their eyes and through the use of auditory organs. Loud underwater noises such as explosions or intense sonar pulses that impair marine mammals' hearing would make it nearly impossible for them to find food, navigate or socialize, Bossart said. Though both Bossart and Smith said there is so far no indication that the whales' ability to hear was damaged by artificial sounds, the possibility cannot be ruled out entirely in light of the tests about 90 miles east of Jacksonville. During these so-called "shock trials," which concluded June 11, a series of underwater explosions were set off to test the structural integrity of the Navy's newest guided missile destroyer, said Lt. Cmdr. John Kirby of the Second Fleet in Norfolk, Va. Kirby said the tests were permitted and overseen by marine fisheries service officials and were in "complete compliance" with environmental and wildlife regulations. The trials were even delayed twice, Kirby said, when dolphins and a turtle were spotted near the testing site. "We take it very seriously," Kirby said of the whale stranding and the possibility that man-made noise was a factor. "We are very concerned with the environment." Beaked whales in particular seem sensitive to artificial underwater sounds. In March 2000, 14 beaked whales, two minke whales and a dolphin beached on islands in the northern Bahamas where a Navy sonar testing exercise was being conducted. And in 1996, a dozen beaked whales beached in western Greece during a NATO test of low-frequency active sonar, the latest generation of submarine-detection technology. The Navy wants to use this technology aboard four ships that would scour 80 percent of the globe's oceans, a prospect that alarms some marine scientists and environmentalists. Current detection of underwater warships relies on passive sonar. Essentially, the technique consists of microphones that are increasingly thwarted by ever-quieter nuclear-powered submarines. Active sonar works by emitting sound pulses. When the sound wave hits an object, its echo returns to the ship where it is analyzed by a computer. Low-frequency active sonar, as its name implies, entails blasting low-frequency tones upwards of 200 decibels from automobile-size underwater speakers towed by ships. That's billions of times louder than the sound of a jet airplane taking off. The advantage of this low-frequency method is that it allows a ship to scan thousands of square miles of ocean. But the sounds may be too intense for marine mammals, some of which communicate at the same low frequencies. Though such sonar technology was not being tested off Florida's coast at the time of the whale stranding on the Treasure Coast, the controversy over its use has focused increased attention on the effects of man-made sounds on marine mammals. "Man is a noisy species," Bossart said. "When our noise starts to affect the lifestyle of other animals, that's when we have to show we can be good stewards of the environment." Copyright (c) 2001, The Palm Beach Post |