Navy Sonar caused death of Whales

The mass stranding of 16 whales in the Bahamas in March 2000 was caused by sonar trials being carried out by the US Navy, a report published in January 2002 revealed.

Over a 36 hour period on 15 and 16 March 2000 16 whales and a spotted dolphin beached on the shores of the Bahamas. Seven whales died - five Cuvier's beaked whales, one Blainville's beaked whale and the dolphin.

The other ten whales were pushed back out to sea and their fate is unknown. The first whales stranded in front of the Marine Mammal Survey on Abaco. The survey station preserved the heads of the whales so that a detailed study could be done of their ears.

At the time of the strandings the US Navy was carrying out trials involving sonar studies in the 3,000 to 7,000 cycles per second range. These generated noise of around 230 decibels. Tissue damage to sea animals occurs at around 180 decibels. As sound is measured on a logarithmic scale 230 decibels in thousands of times louder than this.

The Navy initially denied that the incident had any connection with their sonar trials.

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