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We, the undersigned, are scientists concerned about
the growing use by the United States Navy of intense active sonar
systems in oceans around the world. Most recently, the Navy has
requested, and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service may give, a
permit to harass and injure marine mammals while operating a new low
frequency active (LFA) sonar system.
We know that the sea is home to whales, dolphins,
and other marine species that depend on sound to communicate, to find
food, to find mates, and to navigate. Yet the oceans are becoming more
and more polluted by noise from many sources, including industrial,
commercial, and military sources, operating at intensities high enough
to injure or disturb. It has been estimated that low-frequency ambient
noise rose by more than one order of magnitude, on average, during the
latter half of the twentieth century. Each additional intrusion further
undermines the quality of the ocean environment for its residents.
At this time, our particular concern is the impact
of high intensity sonar of many different frequencies, including LFA, on
marine mammals. We believe that there is not enough evidence to prove
such uses of high intensity sound are safe. On the contrary, there is
evidence that high-intensity sonar affects marine mammal communication
and navigation and, in some species, may cause strandings and death. For
example, sonar impacted pilot whales in the Mediterranean in 1994, sonar
experiments were correlated with beaked whale strandings in Greece in
1996, and the mass mortality of whales in the Bahamas last year has been
linked to the use of high intensity sonar. It is not well understood
what frequencies are of concern for which species or what intensities of
sound might produce these effects. The low-frequency signals produced by
LFA sonar are of special concern because of the extraordinary distance
they propagate and the diversity of habitat in which they would be
employed. According to the United States Marine Mammal Commission, “[i]f
the LFA sonar system is made available for world-wide employment as
proposed, all species and populations of marine mammals could possibly
be affected.” In the case of high-intensity sonar, we strongly support
the precautionary principle embodied in the U.S. Marine Mammal
Protection Act, to avoid activities that harm or can potentially harm
marine mammals, including activities that affect marine mammal behavior.
We know high intensity sound affects individual species of marine
mammals differently. But we don’t know its impact on species, stocks,
and ecological processes over time, as the U.S. Navy expands and
intensifies its use of active sonar and as other navies may begin to
develop similar technologies. We are concerned about the cumulative
impacts from many different sound sources operating independently in the
world’s oceans and about the combined effects of those sources operating
at the same time in the same region.
Under the current proposal for LFA sonar, most of
the geographic area potentially affected by the sonar will go
unmonitored. The impact of high intensity sonar and expansion of its use
in the sea presents an unacceptable risk to marine species and their
habitat. Therefore, we call on the National Marine Fisheries Service and
the United States Navy to address this issue in an appropriate and
publicly open manner; and we ask governments to convene an international
panel to develop protocols for regulation. Furthermore, we respectfully
urge the Navy to withdraw its request for global deployment of the LFA
system.
Signatories:
Sylvia Earle, Former Chief Scientist, U.S.
NOAA; National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence; President, National
Marine Sanctuaries Foundation; Knighted by the Netherlands: Order of the
Golden Ark; Olguin Marine Environment Award; Stratton Leadership Award.
George Woodwell, Director, Woods Hole
Research Center; Founder and Director, Ecosystems Center of the Marine
Biological Laboratory; Heinz Award for the Environment; Volvo
Environment Prize Member, National Academy of Science; Fellow, American
Academy of Arts and Sciences; Former Chairman, World Wildlife Fund-US.
Paul Anderson, Emeritus Professor of
Zoology, University of Calgary; Former Chairman, Marine Mammal Committee
of the American Society of Mammalogists; Member, ATOC Marine Mammal
Research Program Advisory Board.
Philip Anderson, Professor, Princeton
University; Nobel Prize (Physics); National Medal of Science; Dannie
Heineman Bardeen Prize; Foreign Member, Japan Academy; Foreign Member,
Royal Society of London.
Peter Auster, Science Director, National
Undersea Research Center, University of Connecticut; Research
Coordinator, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary; Pew Fellow.
John Avise, Professor of Genetics,
University of Georgia; Pew Fellow; William Brewster Memorial Award,
American Ornithologists’ Union; Creative Research Medal, University of
Georgia; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Fellow, American
Association for the Advancement of Science; President, Society for the
Study of Evolution.
Giovanni Bearzi, President, Tethys Research
Institute; Pew Fellow; Henry Ford European Conservation Award; Member,
IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group; Board of Directors, European Cetacean
Society.
Joseph Blue, Vice-President, Leviathan
Legacy; Former Director, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Underwater Sound
Reference Division; Superintendent, Naval Research Laboratory,
Underwater Sound Reference Detachment; Fellow, Acoustical Society of
America; Chairman, Pioneer Medal for Underwater Acoustics, Acoustical
Society of America; Contributor, Benchmark Papers in Underwater
Acoustics.
P. Dee Boersma, Professor of Zoology,
University of Washington; Past President, Society for Conservation
Biology; Pew Fellow; William Evans Visiting Fellow, University of Otago;
Fellow, American Ornithologists’ Union; National Leadership Fellowship,
Kellogg Foundation.
Lester Brown, Founder, President, and Senior
Researcher, World Watch Institute; MacArthur Fellow; United Nations
Environment Prize; United Nations Environment Programme Environmental
Leadership Medal; Gold Medal – Pro Habitabili Award, King of Sweden;
Blue Planet Prize, Asahi Glass Foundation.
Jim Darling, Co-Founder and Director, West
Coast Whale Research Foundation; Co-Founder, Clayoquot Biosphere
Project.
Richard Dawkins, Professor, New College,
Oxford University; Nakayama Prize for Human Science; Royal Society of
London Michael Faraday Award; Medal of the Zoological Society of London.
Rene Drucker-Colin, Chair, Department of
Physiology, School of Medicine, Autonomous National University of Mexico
(UNAM); President, Mexican Academy of Sciences; National Sciences Prize;
Guggenheim Fellow; Mexican Foundation for Health Prize; National Prize
for Sciences and Arts (Mexico).
Paul Ehrlich, Professor, Stanford
University; Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; MacArthur
Fellow; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; United Nations
Environment Programme Sasakawa Environment Prize; Volvo Environment
Prize; Heinz Award for the Environment; Member, National Academy of
Sciences.
Thomas Eisner, Professor, Cornell
University; National Medal of Science; Tyler Prize for Environmental
Achievement; Guggenheim Fellow; Centennial Medal, Harvard University;
Member, National Academy of Sciences; Foreign Member, Royal Society of
London.
Peter Evans, Research Associate, Oxford
University; Co-Founder and Director, Sea Watch Foundation; Founding
Secretary, Chairman, and Editor, European Cetacean Society; Member,
Department of the Environment (UK) Marine Mammal Research Steering
Group; Author, including Natural History of Whales and Dolphins
Alexandros Frantzis, Founder and President,
Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute; Research Associate, National Centre
for Marine Research (Greece); Member, IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group;
Member, Scientific Committee of the Agreement on the Conservation of
Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic
Area (ACCOBAMS).
Jane Goodall, Founder, Jane Goodall
Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation; Andrew D.
White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University; National Geographic
Explorer-in-Residence; Hubbard Medal, National Geographic Society; Kyoto
Award; The Ark Trust Lifetime Achievement Award; Commander of the Order
of the British Empire.
Jonathan Gordon, Honorary Lecturer,
University of St. Andrews; Former Scientific Director, IFAW Song of the
Whale Program; Member, National Academy of Sciences Committee on
Potential Impacts of Ambient Noise in the Ocean on Marine Mammals.
Brian Josephson, Professor, Cavendish Lab,
Cambridge University; Nobel Prize (Physics); Hughes Medal; Faraday
Medal; Holweck Medal.
Michio Kaku, Henry Semat Professorship in
Theoretical Physics, City University of New York; Visiting Professor,
Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; Author, including Hyperspace
and Visions.
Jon Lien, Professor, Memorial University of
Newfoundland; Keyes Award for Research and Conservation, International
Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine; National Parks Centennial Award
(Canada); pioneered the development of practical techniques to free
whales from fishing gear.
Helene Marsh, Professor of Environmental
Science, James Cook University; Pew Fellow; President, Australian Mammal
Society; Chair, Sirenia Species Survival Commission, IUCN.
Laurence D. Mee, Professor, University of
Plymouth; Pew Fellow; Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry; Honorary
Fellow, Georgian Academy of Ecological Sciences; Former Coordinator, UN
Global Environment Facility Black Sea Environmental Program.
John Potter, Associate Research Professor,
University of Singapore; Founder and Director, Acoustics Research
Laboratory, National University of Singapore; Polar Medal; International
Fellow, Explorer’s Club; Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers. Randall Reeves, Chairman, IUCN Species Survival
Commission's Cetacean Group; Former Research Associate, Smithsonian
Institution; Former Member of theBoard of Governors, Society for Marine
Mammalogy.
Carl Safina, Vice President for Marine
Conservation, National Audubon Society; Pew Fellow; Shapiro Conservation
Award, New York State Parks; member, NMFS advisory panels; Author,
including Song for the Blue Ocean.
David Suzuki, Chairman, David Suzuki
Foundation; Kalinga Award, UNESCO; Environmental Achievement Award,
Environment Canada; United Nations Environment Program Medal; Sanford
Fleming Medal, Royal Canadian Institute; Fellow, American Association
for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada; Order
of Canada; British Columbia Science & Engineering Gold Medal, Science
Council of British Columbia.
John W. Terborgh, Director of the Duke
University Center for Tropical Conservation; Founder, Manu Tropical
Research Station, Peru; MacArthur Fellow; Guggenheim Fellow; Pew Fellow;
Certificate of Merit, Society for Conservation Biology; Fellow, American
Academy of Arts and Sciences; Guggenheim Fellow; Member, National
Academy of Sciences; Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, National Academy of
Sciences.
Andrew Trites, Assistant Professor and
Director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit, Fisheries Centre,
University of British Columbia; Research Director, North Pacific
Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium.
Amanda Vincent, Assistant Professor of
Biology, McGill University; Pew Fellow; Swire Award, Royal Geographical
Society; Rolex Award for Enterprise; Grand Prix International pour
l’Environment Marin, Conféderation Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques
(CMAS); Whitley Award in Animal Conservation, Royal Geographical
Society.
Alan T. White, Director, Coastal Management
Project, Tetra Tech EM Inc.; Pew Fellow; Founding Member and President,
Sulu Fund for Marine Conservation Foundation, Inc.
Hal Whitehead, Faculty of Science Killam
Professor and Professor of Biology, Dalhousie University; Hefner
Lecturer, Miami University; University Research Fellow, Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council (Canada); Service Award, Committee on
the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.
Edward O. Wilson, University Research
Professor, Harvard University; Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences; National Medal of Science; International Prize for Biology,
Government of Japan; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Pulitzer
Prize (twice); Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical
Society.
Bernd Würsig, Professor and Director of
Marine Mammals Research Program, Texas A&M University; Past President,
Society for Marine Mammalogy; Heiser Award, Houston Zoological Society;
Fellow of Research, Explorer’s Club.
Presented by the International Fund for Animal
Welfare and The National Resources Defense Council.
For more information visit: www.IFAW.org or
www.NRDC.org
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