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Deep Sea Monster Baffles Scientists
sbszine writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has a report of a bizarre sea creature that has washed up on the coast of Chile. The creature is grey, lumpy, and the size of a school bus. Scientists have ruled out the possibility that it may be a whale -- the creature is an invertebrate, and perhaps even a new species."
The U.S. Navy is testing a new high-powered sonar system. Perhaps it is killing ocean animals whose existence we are (previously) unaware of?
Do invertebrates have ears? I don't know the answer, but I do know quite a good deal about the U.S. Navy's sonar program (called SURTASS or sometimes SURTASS LFA) as I just spent the past week researching it for a debate tournament.
SURTASS LFA (Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System, Low Frequency Active) sends out sonar pings to search for mines, submarines, and the like at around 180 dB, though it can get louder or quieter than that. It does indeed cause severe damage to marine life, particularly whales and dolphins, who communicate with sonar and therefore are susceptible to this type of sonar. It causes severe acoustic trauma and sometimes bleeding around the ears and even death. It is also known to cause strandings of whales...
The reason I bring this up is that if any sea creature doesn't have ears/can't hear sound/whatever, they are immune to this type of sonar. However, if they do have ears, they can be quite vulnerable to it. Do any invertebrates have ears? Do squid? This could be related.
Oops!