The sonar-based technology that has shown promise in improving fish stock assessment — now on a fast track for $1.3 million in state funding that could help solve the mystery of disappearing cod — has also been found to affect the behavior and singing of whales.
Humpback whales "sang less" and possibly swam away from the pings of the Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing technology — or OAWRS — system during a 2006 test to find and quantify schools of pelagic fish in the nearby Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, according to a newly published research article in PLoS One, for Public Library of Science One.
The study also found that the whales seemed to be reacting to the sonar sounds at a far greater distance from the source — roughly 120 miles.
That "anthropogenic" (man-made) sound affects aquatic animals, especially whales which communicate or sing across vast expanses of water is a heavily researched, disputed and litigated problem, according to the study, and U.S. Navy sonar has been linked to strandings, with one case going to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read the complete article by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times