September 25, 2009 Sonar: Acoustic Harassment U.S. Navy poses
risk to endangered and threatened species when using low
frequency sonarSurveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low
Frequency Active sonar is the U.S. Navy's newest must-have
defense technology. The Navy claims that LFA sonar will be able
to detect today's "quieter" submarines so reliably that it plans
to deploy LFA routinely throughout most of the world's oceans.
The only problem is that LFA sonar may harm whales and other
marine mammals. This sonar will generate one of the loudest
sounds that human beings can make in the ocean. Worse, because
they are low-frequency in nature, these sounds can travel for
hundreds of miles, effectively ensonifying thousands of cubic
miles of ocean. The Humane Society of the United States fears
that LFA sonar may pose too great a risk of causing severe
adverse effects to marine animal populations. LFA may damage or
destroy marine mammal hearing, as well as disrupt calving,
breeding, feeding, and communication. There