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Powerful Sonar Causes Deafness In Dolphins
Hugh Pickens writes "Mass strandings of dolphins and whales could be caused because the animals are rendered temporarily deaf by military sonar, experiments have shown. Tests on a captive dolphin have demonstrated that hearing can be lost for up to 40 minutes on exposure to sonar and may explain several strandings of dolphins and whales in the past decade. Most strandings are still thought to be natural events, but the tests strengthen fears that exercises by naval vessels equipped with sonar are responsible for at least some of them. For example, in the Bahamas in March, 2000, 16 Cuvier's beaked whales and Blainville's beaked whales and a spotted dolphin beached during a US navy exercise in which sonar was used intensively for 16 hours (PDF). 'The big question is what causes them to strand,' says Dr. Aran Mooney, of the University of Hawaii. 'What we are looking at are animals whose primary sense is hearing, like ours is seeing. Their ears are the most sensitive organ they have.' In the experiment, scientists fitted a harmless suction cup to the dolphin's head, with a sensor attached that monitored the animal's brainwaves, and when the pings reached 203 decibels and were repeated, the neurological data showed the mammal had become deaf, for its brain no longer responded to sound. 'We definitely showed that there are physiological and some behavioral effects [from repeated, loud sonar], but to extrapolate that into the wild, we don't really know,' said Mooney."
Yeah, military, animal testers and consumers suck.
It's fucking obvious and they shouldn't develop techniques doing as much damage.
If that can help regulate the use of military sonars who seem to not care about mass-killing dolphins, I say it is worth it.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
You make a 203 decibel noise next to *anything* and it'll become deaf, including human beings. A vacuum cleaner is only 80 dB and the front rows of a rock concert only 110 dB.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Unless the military are doing drills, which is why people have been campaigning for the drills to be done further out where there are less dolphins. But people like fox news, take offense to the idea of caring about anything when national security is involved!
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Becasue a species must watch out for themselves first.
I'd personally kill every Dolphin myself if it would save a human life.
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