!! News Flash !!

We’ve just heard interesting news from the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust (HWDT) who we have been collaborating with during this study. They have been conducting boat surveys around Skye in their research vessel, Silurian, whilst we monitor the northern Minch from land. The HWDT boat team encountered unusual minke whale behaviour – in two separate incidents - individual minke whales were seen porpoising through the water when military sonar was picked up very loudly on the boats hydrophone (underwater microphone).

Minke whales have been involved in mass stranding incidents surrounding naval sonar – one of the best documented mass strandings is that which occurred in the Northwest Providence Channel in the Bahamas in 2000 whilst US navy ships were transitting the area and using mid-frequency active sonar. Two minke whales stranded in addition to a number of beaked whales of two different species (beaked whales are more commonly associated with naval sonar strandings).

This is serious indeed and requires further investigation. We believe that it adds weight to our case for the UK Ministry of Defence to conduct full and transparent Environmental Impact Assessment for exercise Joint Warrior.

This entry was posted by Sarah Dolman on Friday, May 15. 2009 at 17:51. and is filed under Gairloch 2009. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own blog. All new comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

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