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Did the Australian Navy Send 110 Whales to Their Deaths?

Posted on: Sunday, 30 October 2005, 09:00 CST

By Kathy Marks IN SYDNEY

The spectacle of scores of dead whales piled up on a remote beach in Tasmania last week has once again raised the question of whether mass beachings may be caused by military sonar.

The Australian Department of Defence has admitted that two of its minesweepers used short-range, high-frequency sonar to search for a shipwreck off Marion Bay, where 110 pilot whales died in two incidents on Tuesday and Wednesday. The ships were looking for a Dutch vessel that sank off the bay more than 360 years ago.

But the defence officials denied any responsibility for the strandings, saying the first one took place while the ships were still anchored off the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, a significant distance to the west. 'The later presence of the two ships in the ... area is purely coincidental,' a spokesman said.

Environmentalists say the ear-splitting sounds can disrupt the navigation systems of whales and dolphins. Earlier this month a coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the US navy, claiming that its use of sonar violates environmental laws.

Underwater seismic testing by the oil and gas industries has also been implicated. However, the closest exploration work to Marion Bay last week was taking place in the waters between Tasmania and Victoria, 275 miles north.

The rugged Tasmanian coastline has one of the world's highest rates of whale beachings, and Marion Bay is a notorious blackspot. In 1998 110 pilot whales died after beaching themselves in the same spot. And in November 2004 115 pilot whales and bottle-nosed dolphins died in two strandings off nearby Maria Island, prompting the Australian government to set up a national database of such incidents.

Wildlife officials said last week that the latest deaths were probably caused by the animals becoming disoriented by the topography of the area, on the island's south-eastern coast. The large bay has frequently changing water depths, sandy spits, rocky outcrops and a narrow opening to the ocean.

Mark Pharaoh, of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, said: 'The most common belief here is that since these strandings are so regular, it's basically difficult country for a whale to navigate in.' Another wildlife officer, Ingrid Albion, speculated that one confused whale might have led its entire pod on to the beach. 'Maybe they've come in close looking for food, maybe the tide's been a bit different,' she said.

'Only one of them has to get into trouble and make a wrong turn, and they'll actually call the rest of the pod to them.' Wildlife officials, helped by volunteers, managed to save 19 of the long- finned pilot whales.

Researchers at the University of Tasmania have suggested that beachings may be linked to a 10-year cycle of increased wind strengths over the Southern Ocean. Changes in the earth's magnetic field and pursuit by killer whales are among other theories. Tasmania's Green Party has called for a national summit to investigate the phenomenon, and it also wants the federal government to provide more information on the navy's use of sonar. The minesweepers were searching for the anchor of the Dutch ship, which sank in the 1640s.

The lawsuit in the US " which was launched by, among others, Jean- Michel Cousteau, son of the ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is aimed at vessels that use mid-frequency sonar to locate submarines and underwater objects. The navy has 60 days to respond to the action.

A report by the International Whaling Commission's scientific committee last year concluded that the link between sonar and whale deaths was 'very convincing and appears overwhelming'.

Source: Independent on Sunday, The

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