Texas Size KILL ZONE

The U.S. Navy has developed an extremely powerful (low frequency) sonar to detect "quiet" submarines, and it has applied for a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to deploy it. However, based on newly available scientific information, we know that this low frequency sonar emits a shock wave that at 150 to 160 decibels can kill whales, other marine mammals and marine fish by rupturing the membranes surrounding their lungs, swim bladder, brain and auditory air spaces. The second lethal effect of the shock wave involves the activation of supersaturated gas in marine animals' blood and in their cells to form small bubbles which, like the "bends" can block the flow of blood to the brain (causing stroke) and can rupture the cell walls. This effect will be greatest in deep-diving animals (such as bluefin tuna, swordfish, bigeye tuna and deep-diving whales) that will have the highest levels of supersaturated gasses in their blood and cells.

The source level of this sonar is 240 decibels (equivalent to the intensity of a Saturn rocket). But, because low frequency underwater sound can travel hundreds of miles with little loss of power, it will actually create a "kill zone" several hundred miles in diameter. NATO naval exercises using low frequency sonar conducted off Greece in 1996 killed whales that were more than 100 km away. In the final EIS for its sonar system, the Navy admits that an intensity of 160 decibels (a lethal level) will be felt several hundred miles away from the source. This will create a "Kill Zone" the size of Texas.

The Navy says it wants to deploy this sonar in 80% of the world's oceans (omitting only the Arctic and Antarctic). It has already been, or is to be used in many areas that are prime habitat of marlin, swordfish, bluefin tuna, mako sharks, bigeye tuna, sailfish, spearfish, wahoo, yellowfin tuna and many other premiere game fish (and their prey species). Such areas include the Bahamas, the continental shelf off New Jersey, North Carolina, the Azores, Canary Islands, California, Hawaii, etc. During the spring-early summer, the deep channels between the Bahamas and the larger Caribbean Islands are the center of spawning for swordfish, white marlin and blue marlin of the North Atlantic Ocean. As also described on our website (see below), these species' prime summer-fall feeding grounds include (1) the edge of the continental shelf (between the 100 and 1000 fathom lines) from just below Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to the eastern tip of Georges Bank off Massachusetts; (2) similar areas along the edge of the continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico; and (3) the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands (following the extension of the Gulf Stream as the Azores Current and then the Canary Current). The Navy has not evaluated the consequences of its sonar on marine fish.

The Navy can not proceed unless it is given a permit issued by NMFS, which must consider the sonar's effects under authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. NMFS is in the final stages of making its determination, so time is of the essence. For more detailed information on the worldwide effects of high intensity sonar on whales and other marine mammals, visit the website of the Ocean Mammal Institute (www.oceanmammalinst.org).

The Biodiversity Legal Foundation and James Chambers submitted an analysis of the new scientific information on April 4, 2002. It describes the real severity of the effects of low frequency sonar on not only marine mammals but also most species of fish. Of particular concern is its effects on the world's large pelagic species - billfish, tunas, sharks and their prey. A copy of the BLF letter to NMFS' Director can be found HERE

What can YOU do? ​

Express your concern in a letter to NMFS' Director (and send copies to your representatives in Congress and members of the Bush administration). And pass this alert on to others so they can act, too.

"Democracy is not a spectator sport." ​

 

Somehow, I don't think killing off massive amounts of marine life was considered that big an issue for the Navy on this issue. Respect for the environment (or respect for anything/anyone) is not exactly a hallmark of the US military or administration. I'll pass this one along.... hopefully with enough concerned citizens this could be stopped or at least restricted.

 

Remember all those dead Dolphins washing up on the east coast of the USA years ago. Other large fish kills also . They sank or the sharks got them. Navies stand is probably ,screw the worlds food supply from the ocean. Yeah, Techonology Rules, screw everthing else. I am sure they have a unit for use in the sky also. Wait till the Generals and Congress gets their protective suits. "Mommy why is blood coming out of me?" "You have been watching too much TV again."

 

Studies Required

I had written something similar in a research vessel proposal, "If we permit our oceans to become a cemetery, we may damage its alter ego the atmosphere, and ultimately our planet itself."

Our oceans are a precious resource, even beyond our own imagination. We need more qualified academics in pure oceanography, in contrast to those drawn away into military weapons development or searching/developing oil resources in our seas. We need to get more kids excited about ocean studies,… …initiate and perpetuate their interest. There are no Jacques Cousteau programs as there were in my youth. We need some training & introductory vessels for these students, and I think a few of them require a romantic image in order to lure some of these young people aboard. A SAILing research vessel is one answer.

And these 'quite vessels' lend themselves well to studies of sound in the ocean.

 

The real problem is what type of people are worming their way to the tops of all governments. Some would sell their family members to sex rings for one more election win. They make Hitler look like a loving, loyal, German patriot.

 

I think you're being a bit harsh on Adolf Hitler by comparing him with the current crop of meglomaniacs...

 

I don't believe that the US of A has the funds to finance this issue, nontheless, they operate AT UNBELIEVABLE COST the SOSUS system. The very reason is that Navy, Army and Airforce are without employnebt since the fall of the Iron curtain.
Arab terrorist activity is carefully cultivated in order to keep fear and the war machinery oiled. Without a definite enemy, there is no justification to employ such a hugh warrior system by a country that is almost bankrupt, according to Tom Clancy.
It is significant that only "profitable targets" are in the picture whilst Africa could use better than Iraq a force that could make mince-meat of those families/clans that threatens for decades their own people.
Supersilent sub's are only made by Russia, their Kilo-class is quite succesful and no way that America dares to forbid the Russian to export their sub's as they did with the Dutch, forbidding them to export the WALRUS subs to Taiwan.
It must be said that such a delivery could have raised a lot of tension in the Chinese waters, that true.
Brian, I am with you.

 

Apparently the way this contraption works is you hang a bunch of loud speakers individually wrapped in zip lock bags over the side of a nuclear aircraft carrier. Then you wire each speaker to an amplifier powered by the ship’s nuclear plant. Then you have a drunken, angry Scot play Danny Boy into the microphone with his bagpipes. Forte. Reports are that it takes just one drunk, angry, bagpipe playing Scot to wipe out all life within in an area the size of Texas, called a kilokilt in technical jargon but I don't want lose anyone with all this scientific stuff.

Just image if the Shirley Pipe Band got their hands on this technology!

 

Dammit Harlem, as as drunken, angry, bagpipe playing Scot, I take exception to the suggestion that I would ever play 'Danny Boy...'

 

Face it. We are doomed, as Progress advances. Whatever Progress is to each group. Boat designers, food preservatives, National Defense.

 

Spoken like a true red, white and blue American!

 

While I sympathise with Cyclops' sentiments, it seems to me that rushing towards extinction is hardly progress.
It seems to me that the 'Kill Zone' wheeze is a further example of your National Defence team's idiotic way of wasting taxpayers' money, and a self-confidence boosting fillip in the wake of the Star Wars, and Staring at Goats fiascos. However it will handsomely add to the coffers of the 'Big End Of Town...' But let's face it - in reality hi-tech solutions are not the answer to a low-tech (gas-pipes stuffed with fertiliser) enemy. The Brits discovered in South Africa that scarlet uniforms failed to impress the Boer Commando.
At the risk of being guilty of the 'new' Australian sedition laws, I suggest that each US citizen refuse to pay their taxes until that money is rightfully used to benefit ALL Americans - and not just the National Defence shareholders.
So, it'll clog up the courts for a while...But the longer results will be a safer world for us all.

 

When we hear about any new weapon, all the rest of the world has seen it on their TV's for years. Our country protects us, by censoring anything unpleasant to the USA people.

 

Then can I be the first to inform you that George Bush junior is now President of the USA.

 

Say it ain't so!

Well, I tip my hat and push a tall one back to whoever invented them’thar silicone implant thingy-m'bobs. A beautiful site indeed, and it warms my wee heart to think they have the half-life of uranium. Why its one of the few technological advancements that can actually be taken into the afterlife. Heaven I tell ya’lads, that’s a touch of heaven bestowed upon this troubled world.

Mr. Bergalia, I apologize for that Danny Boy slip of the tongue. Its my Irish roots gone astray from many generations of isolation in this intellectual wasteland of ours, where my hearty genes have shamefully weakened by over indulgences in highland fries, lowland burgers, cold beer and warm whisk-e-y. For this it is clear when Gabrielle comes a coming, he’ll be a’bagpipe piping 'S Gann Gunn Dirich Mi Chaoidh with all of his heart while Rod Stewart sings harmony.