In 2008, during RIMPAC exercises, a Cuvier’s beaked whale washed up dead on a beach on Molokai, a small Hawaiian island. Mark Matsunaga, a Navy spokesman, says there’s nothing to indicate Navy activity was involved in that stranding. The Navy’s use of sonar in the area ceased at least 72 hours before the whale stranded, Matsunaga says.
Another event in 2004, where 200 Melon-headed whales showed up confused and out of place in Hanalei Bay, Kauai, is still the subject of controversy. While the Navy contends that sonar was too far away on the other side of the island to affect the whales, environmentalists point to sonar as the culprit. But multiple scientific articles have highlighted that a full moon could have been at play.
This sidebar is a part of: “You’re killing me”: How whales and dolphins sacrifice for national security
In 2008, during RIMPAC exercises, a Cuvier’s beaked whale washed up dead on a beach on Molokai, a small Hawaiian island. Mark Matsunaga, a Navy spokesman, says there’s nothing to indicate Navy activity was involved in that stranding. The Navy’s use of sonar in the area ceased at least 72 hours before the whale stranded, Matsunaga says.
Another event in 2004, where 200 Melon-headed whales showed up confused and out of place in Hanalei Bay, Kauai, is still the subject of controversy. While the Navy contends that sonar was too far away on the other side of the island to affect the whales, environmentalists point to sonar as the culprit. But multiple scientific articles have highlighted that a full moon could have been at play.
At the same time as the Hanalei Bay incident, a larger mass stranding of the same species occurred in Rota in the Mariana Islands where sonar training was not occurring. That event too was theorized to coincide with the full moon. And while 200 Melon-headed whales in the bay might be an unusual occurrence today, Matsunaga said historical documentation shows a similar event occurred in the 1800s.
“I’m convinced that there’s something to the fact there was a full moon,” Matsunaga said.
Long-time whale researcher Marsha Green, who heads the Ocean Mammal Institute, says there is a historical increase in whale stranding events since the early 1960s when the Navy started using high-intensity active sonar.
The Navy’s newest strategy is to possibly deploy a blanket of continuous low-frequency active sonar that can travel further. Initial take by scientists is that it may have a lower impact on marine mammals but contribute to the general noisiness of the ocea
“There’s a whole larger ocean noise issue that’s really in the process of taking off,” Green says. “But nobody’s aware of it because: Who’s listening?”
Further reading:
Jefferson Rota Stranding — Referenced at the end in the sidebar about the Marianas.
