Lethal Sounds: Deadly Sonar Harms Whales

When I was hanging out with my friend Joanna today she told me about this article she read this weekend on how sonar is killing, damaging, and/or terrorizing whales, dolphins and other marine animals caught within its range, so I did a little research and found out she wasn’t lying!

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “Whales and other marine mammals rely on their hearing for life’s most basic functions, such as orientation and communication. Sound is how they find food, find friends, find a mate, and find their way through the world every day.

…whether it’s the sound of airguns used in oil exploration or subs and ships emitting sonar. Man made sound waves can drown out the noises that marine mammals rely on for their very survival, causing serious injury and even death.”

I had no idea, sometimes I wonder how something so big goes unnoticed in America. Seriously, how without having a TV do I know everything there is to know about Jon and Kate, who is gay on American Idol, and what Britney is up to, but nothing about how for years these poor animals have been and are being tortured. I can’t handle even 20 seconds of hearing the piercing sound of an ambulance screaming from outside, while I sit a couple of floors up inside an office building.  People can be so uncool and unthinking. I have seen many beached whale stories on the news previous to the killing of my tv,  and frankly I do not remember any talk of it being related to sonar. I said it!

You can help out and do something by urging the Obama administration to reject a last minute Bush administration rule that would barrage whales along the Eastern Seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico, California and Hawaii with Navy sonar. Please do so by clicking here.

Still saving the whales.

-Cara