[CPEO-MEF] CARIBBEAN WHALE STRANDINGS LINKED TO NAVY ACTIVITIES

[mtptara@ime.net]

CARIBBEAN WHALE STRANDINGS LINKED TO NAVY ACTIVITIES
By Susan Soltero
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-11-07.html


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, May 11, 2000 (ENS) - As the U.S. Navy resumes 
bomb training on the sleepy island of Vieques, a lone, apparently healthy, 15 
foot male goosebeak whale has been found dead on the shore near the
lighthouse of the small Caribbean island.

The Caribbean Stranding Network is studying whether there is any
correlation between this death, other Caribbean whale deaths and Navy
practices in the area.

A beached goosebeak whale somewhere in the Caribbean (Photo courtesy
Laboratorio de Mamiferos Marinos del Caribe)Goosebeak whales are common in
the waters off Puerto Rico, and two or three of the toothed whales strand
in the Caribbean each year. Goosebeaks are one of more than 27 species of
marine mammals that live in these waters. Some, like the humpback whale, 
make their way to the warm Caribbean waters in the winter to mate and
breed. Others, like the highly endangered manatee and the goosebeak whale,
live there year round.

"This species is particularly sensitive to low frequency sounds," says Dr.
Antonio Mignucci, scientific coordinator of the Caribbean Stranding Network
and oceanography professor at San Juan's Universidad Metropolitana. The
same species was recently involved in a mass stranding of whales and
dolphins in the Bahamas which has been linked to U.S. Navy practices nearby.

Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar being tested and used by the Navy is
suspected as a contributing cause in stranding events of beaked whales in
Greece and the Canary Islands some years ago.

The Navy maintains its LFA sonar is harmless.

More...

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-11-07.html


 

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