Until a few centuries ago, whales dominated the world's oceans. Some 30,000 gray whales navigated shallow coastal waters across the Atlantic and the Pacific. Right whales swam in abundance through much of the North Atlantic and hundreds of thousands of humpback and blue whales roamed the seas. Intensive whaling, though, later reduced many whale populations to a fraction of their former size. North Atlantic right whales are estimated to number only 300 today and 10 other whale species remain endangered as well.
Decades of protection have helped boost some whale populations, including the California gray whale. But now, a new threat has emerged that, like whaling, could have a global impact on whale populations -- including species that depend on vital marine habitats within several North and South American BioGems. Used by the U.S. Navy and militaries around the world for submarine detection, high-intensity active sonar systems operate by blasting sound waves across the ocean floor at up to 245 decibels -- estimated to be as loud as a space shuttle at takeoff. In recent years, scientists have linked the use of mid-frequency sonar to the deaths and strandings of hundreds of whales from the Bahamas to the Canary Islands to Japan.
According to a 2003 report in the scientific journal Nature , active sonar may kill whales by giving them something similar to "the bends," the illness that kills scuba divers who surface too quickly from deep water. Large gas bubbles form in the blood vessels of panicked whales, causing organ damage and internal bleeding. The International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee has declared that "overwhelming" evidence points to military sonar as the cause of mass whale strandings -- and expressed concern that the known cases may be only a fraction of the total number injured or killed.
Most of these strandings and deaths could be avoided if the U.S. Navy -- and the navies of other countries -- took simple safety measures to protect marine mammals while conducting routine training exercises. The NRDC BioGems campaign is generating tens of thousands of messages to the U.S. Navy, calling on it to stop needlessly injuring and killing whales. In a parallel effort, NRDC filed a lawsuit in October 2005 to force the Navy to take common-sense precautions to protect whales from mid-frequency sonar. And NRDC continues to work to build broad support for global action to curtail ocean noise. Our campaign has already helped compel the European Parliament and the World Conservation Congress of the IUCN to call for international controls on the use of military sonar. The Bush administration, however, is strongly opposing such limits.
BioGems Defenders are currently campaigning to protect the whale habitats of Alaska's Western Arctic Reserve, Mexico's Upper Gulf of California and Alacran Reef, Chile's Patagonia Coast, and the Hawaiian Islands -- and the migratory routes that connect them.
BioGems Defenders have also joined NRDC and our Mexican partners in a race to safeguard the gray whale sanctuary in Mexico's Laguna San Ignacio by buying up the surrounding development rights.
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