How Does Military Active Sonar Hurt Marine Life?
Now, we’re not talking the little fish finders on fishing vessels here. We’re talking long-range military active sonar. The type of sonar that sends huge, powerful sound wave booms through tens or hundreds of miles of ocean. Each loudspeaker in the LFA system’s wide array, for example, can generate 215 decibels’ worth — sound as intense as that produced by a twin-engine fighter jet at takeoff. Some mid-frequency sonar systems can put out over 235 decibels, as loud as a Saturn V rocket at launch. Even 100 miles from the LFA system, sound levels can approach 160 decibels, well beyond the Navy’s own safety limits for humans. More at: NRDC: Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar The prominent science journal Nature has published numerous findings on the effects of active sonar on marine mammals. The current reasoning is that the active sonar “confuses” the marine mammal’s echolocation abilities, causing them to strand themselves. While this might be true of animals receiving weak signals
