Submission from Civitas on US Navy's low frequency sonar



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J.S. Johnson                                                                                  November 3, 1999
SURTASS LFA Sonar
901 North Stuart Street # 708
Arlington VA 22203                           FAX to 703-465-8420
   

Re: SURTASS

Reports of the effects of previous LFA Sonar tests on whales and humans indicate that they are dangerous, disruptive, and destructive. This should have been apparent in 1996 when unprecedented strandings of Cuivier's beaked whales in the Mediterranean were linked beyond the possibility of coincidence to LFA sonar testing by a NATO research vessel..

Tests in the Pacific this year disturbed humpback whales around Hawaii.  Most of them stopped singing.  Many left the area.  Calves were abandoned.  Blue and fin whales communicated less.  Some cetologists attributed the change in the gray whale migration route to these tests.

One of the most disturbing factors is that the tests were said to be conducted at a level of 140-180 decibels whereas the US Navy has announced that it intends to use the equipment at levels as high as 215 decibels.  I understand this increase is much greater than the numbers indicate as the scale is based logarithmic exponents.

This means that the EIS prepared by the navy is not valid for the intended use which would be loud enough to disturb people and animals along the shoreline. 

It seems that LFA sonar is much too harmful to employ even at these lower intensities.  If we continue to use such life-destroying defense measures as LFA sonar, nuclear and biological weapons, we will eventually wind up with nothing left worth defending. 

On the basis of the recent tests, I submit on behalf of our members, that the use of LFD sonar should be discontinued.