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USA TODAY THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2007-11A
Montana: Virginia City-A Califor- Ohio: Columbus - Under a plan to in- Utah: Salt Lake City - Three-time
nia company is moving forward with
plans for a wind farm in Madison County
that could produce enough electricity for
45,000 homes. Les Brown, a principal
with Zebuln Renewable Energy, said his
company has already leased 10,000 acres
from ranchers for as many as 70 wind-
mills about 12 miles north of Ennis.
Nebraska: Chadron-Dawes Coun-
ty Attorney Vance Haug said the disap-
pearance and death of a Chadron State
professor is being treating as a homicide
because of unusual circumstances. The
body of Steven Haataja was discovered
on March 9. He had been missing since
Dec. 4. Haug did not elaborate on the cir-
cumstances or on the condition of Haata-
ja's body.
Nevada: Carson City - Lawmakers
called for an audit into why $3.4 million
in fees generated by a college savings
program overseen by former state trea-
surer Brian Krolicki was spent on ads in-
stead of going to state coffers. An ad agen-
cy was paid $2.2 million - half of that for
ads that featured Krolicki promoting the
program in the 2006 campaign season.
Krolicki, a Republican, was elected lieu-
tenant governor in November.
New Hampshire: Epping – Resi-
dents voted to make all new commercial
buildings in town "green," as in energy-
saving. They passed an ordinance at
Town Meeting requiring such options as
orienting the buildings to improve pas-
sive heating and cooling, using efficient
ventilation and heating systems, increas-
ing insulation and using or generating re-
newable energy.
New Jersey: Newark - A man
whose left leg was amputated below the
knee can train to become a firefighter in
Paterson, the state Merit System Board
said. The fire department had balked at
hiring Isaac Feliciano last year, even
though he finished 103rd among more
than 600 candidates in a physical test.
New Mexico: Alamogordo - City
commissioners voted unanimously to ask
Otero County officials to explain a pro-
posed charge of $80 per inmate per day.
The two governments have been negoti-
ating a new agreement for the county's
housing of city prisoners.
New York: Huntington - After
spending a quarter-century upstate, the
Miss New York pageant is heading south
to Long Island. Pageant officials an-
nounced that the competition to deter-
mine the Empire State's entry in the Miss
America contest will be held July 8-14 at
the Dix Hills Center for the Performing
Arts at Five Towns College in Huntington.
The pageant has been held in upstate
Watertown since 1982.
North Carolina: Raleigh - A
beaked whale that stranded itself on the
Outer Banks last week died about 10 days
after the Navy conducted sonar training
exercises off the Virginia Coast. The 15-
foot nursing mother had bleeding around
both ears, although a scientist who per-
formed a necropsy could not say what
caused the whale to beach.

[PAGE BREAK]

Whale deaths tied to sonar tests
By RICK WEISS
The Washington Post
The mysterious mass stranding of
16 whales in the Bahamas in March
2000 was caused by U.S. Navy tests in
which intense underwater sounds
were generated for 16 hours, accord-
ing to a new government report com-
piled by civilian and military scientists.
The report's conclusions mark the
first time that underwater noise other
than from an explosion has been shown
to cause fatal trauma in marine mam-
mals. The military's acknowledgment
of responsibility also marks a sharp de-
parture from earlier statements by the
Navy, which had denied responsibility
for the Bahamian beachings and other
mass strandings of marine mammals
that coincided with sonar exercises.
Experts said the study which re-
lied on an elaborate airlift of frozen
whale heads from the Bahamas to a
Harvard Medical School X-ray facility
places the Navy on notice that it will
have to balance more carefully its
need to conduct underwater sonar
tests against the need to protect ma-
rine mammals. The report, approved
by Navy Secretary Gordon R. England,
concludes that the Navy should "put
into place mitigation measures that
will protect animals to the maximum
extent practical" during peacetime
training and research efforts.
But the report also allows for the sus-
pension of such protections in the inter-
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est of "national security," a broad ex-
emption that has yet to be defined in
practice. And it does not answer the
contentious question of whether marine
wildlife may also be imperiled by a dif-
ferent kind of sonar test proposed by the
Navy, one that would involve much low-
er-frequency sound waves in the ocean.
The latest report, a joint project of
the Navy and the National Marine
Fisheries Service, grew out of the
beaching of 16 whales and a spotted
dolphin on Bahamian shores over 36
hours starting March 15, 2000. Seven of
the animals five Cuvier's beaked
whales, one Blainville's beaked whale
and the dolphin - died. Ten other
whales were pushed back to sea, and
their fates are unknown.
The strandings coincided with a
nearby Navy exercise meant to im-
prove coordination among ships sailing
through enemy-infested channels. The
test involved middle-frequency (about
3,000 to 7,000 cycles per second) sonar
studies in which underwater noises of
about 230 decibels were generated.
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1 Janzoor TUESDAY Kengebec Journal
TUESD page 8'3 and 2-4
Augusta, Maine

[PAGE BREAK]

une
bec Journal, Augusta, Ma
Study looks at noisy boats' effect on fish
By MEREDITH GOAD
Guy Gannett Service
As if fishermen didn't have
enough to worry about, now it
appears their boats may be too loud.
A new study performed by a
group of hearing-impaired stu-
dents shows that the noise created
66S
Some of the noise they found would
cause some short-term deafness (in
humans) after an eight-hour exposure,
according to OSHA standards. 99
by fishing vessels in the Gulf of Monday 15 Jan 1996
Maine may be enough to damage
the sensitive hearing of whales and
dolphins.
"Some of the noise they found
would cause some short-term
deafness (in humans) after an
eight-hour exposure, according to
OSHA standards, said Peter
Scheifele, a marine acoustics spe-
cialist at the University of Con-
necticut's National Undersea
Research Center.
Noise pollution in the sea has
become a hot new topic in marine
research circles. Recently, a con-
troversial global warming experi-
ment in the Pacific Ocean that
sends blasts of sounds through the
sea via underwater loudspeakers
was redesigned after critics com-
plained that the noise created by
the project might deafen marine
mammals.
The new study, conducted by stu-
dents from the American School for
the Deaf in Hartford and supervised
by Scheifele, suggests that noise
from fishing vessels could interfere
with marine mammals' ability to
Page 10 cal 1-4
navigate, hunt for food and avoid
danger.
Though it's just one study,
Scheifele says, it's an important first
step toward understanding the
effects of low-frequency noise on
whales and dolphins. And it is the
first study to translate the underwa-
ter racket that these creatures hear
into human terms.
"The whole problem of noise ver-
sus whales is that there's not much
written on it," Scheifele said, "and
nobody really knows what they live
in as the norm, much less what is
happening when we put boats into
the water. We're at the very, very
beginning of this."
The students who performed the
study were participating in the
National Undersea Research Cen-
ter's High School Aquanauts pro-
gram. Each year the program
recruits different schools from
Peter Scheifele,
marine acoustics specialist
University of Connecticut
around New England to participate
in marine research and education
programs.
Scheifele lectured to the students
throughout the year, teaching them
about oceanic acoustics and show-
ing them how to "listen" to under-
water sounds by looking at audio-
grams.
Then the group went out to Stell-
wagen Bank, a marine sanctuary
and fishing area in the Gulf of Maine
just north of Provincetown, Mass.
Stellwagen Bank traditionally has
been a favorite hangout for hump-
back, finback and minke whales and
white-sided dolphins.
The students used hydrophones
to measure sounds transmitted
underwater at different times of the
day, along with taking a census of
the animals they saw and the num-
ber of fishing vessels in the area.
Whales and dolphins have much
more advanced auditory systems
than humans. They hear a broader
spectrum of sound, including ultra-
sound, says Scheifele, who did
some of the original work with dol-
phins that led to the development
of fetal ultrasound machines in
hospitals.
"If you looked at the number of
nerve fibers that are on our main
brain stem that allow us to sense
" he
noise, you're looking at 55,000,'
said, "compared to an average
whale that contains 115,000 nerve
fibers that are there for the sole
pose of processing sound."
pur-
Scheifele and some of his stu-
dents are now working on a three-
year follow-up study, using subarc-
tic beluga whales in Canada's St.
Lawrence estuary.
Scheifele plans to measure the
noise levels from boat traffic that
goes through the area during the
year and observe the whales' behav-
ioral responses. When a whale dies,
Scheifele will bring its ears back to
Connecticut for an examination.
"We'll run them through an MRI
and X-ray to try and find out if
there's actually any physical dam-
age to the inner ear," he said.
Utility Grade

[PAGE BREAK]

SATURDAY cal 2-4 pagec 5
Marine researchers
discovering
sea sounds not always soothing
BOSTON (AP) - The "silent
world," as Jacques Cousteau called
the ocean depths, is not so silent
after all.
Some places in the deep blue sea
are getting to be as noisy as Times
Square at noon, researchers say.
Among the aquatic noisemak-
ers: screeching icebergs in the
Arctic Ocean, chattering shrimp
along the South Carolina coast
and clanging oil rigs in the North
Sea.
While some places in the sea
are as quiet as a Nebraska prairie at
midnight, others sound like under-
water fiestas, according to a study
done by researchers at the New
England Aquarium, the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology and
Cornell University.
Whaling areas in the North At-
lantic have about the same noise
level as a busy New York intersec-
tion, or more than 100 decibels,
says Arthur Baggeroer, an ocean
engineering professor at MIT.
The South Pacific registers the
least amount of noise about 65
decibels because of its distance
from commercial shipping lanes.
"Unlike things on the surface,
sounds underwater can actually be
louder because of a chamber ef-
fect," Baggeroer says. "Black Sea
dolphins in Russia can make
sounds that we may not be able to
hear, but they sound quite loud to
other fish and animals."
Baggeroer and fellow re-
searcher William Spitzer say the
ocean echoes as sounds travel
through layers of water at different
speeds, depending on temperature
and water pressure.
Sound travels faster at the sur-
face and more quickly through
warmer water.
"The result of that is sound that
starts in the layer, bounces up
against the top of that layer and it
tends to get louder," says Spitzer,
an oceanographer for the New
England Aquarium. "It's like
speaking in a tube."
The sounds traveling through
the sea include the gurgling of toad
fish in the Caribbean; the bell-like
call of walruses; the squeaking of
dolphins; and the thumping of mo-
tors and other machinery.
The research was compiled
from studies over the last decade,
including data recently declassified
by the Navy. The Navy for the past
several years has used high-pow-
ered underwater microphones to
monitor enemy submarines.
The research found that click-
ing noises of shrimp registered
more than 80 decibels. Oil rigs can
ring out about 180 decibels.
The key question now for re-
searchers is how sound affects sea
creatures, which detect noise and
vibration through an auditory or-
gan or a vein, called a lateral line,
that runs across the body.
CONNECTICUT POST, BRIDGEPORT, CONN ZIMAR 1998

[PAGE BREAK]

Daily News, Not.
28 May 2008
ter sonar tests
wacky by military underwa-
Whales are being driven
WASHINGTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
on whales
decision
in sound
Pentagon
Sunday
and the
Environmentalists
in New Jersey.
conducts a military exercise
other marine life when it
be harmful to whales and
ume sonar tests that could
ed not to perform high-vol-
The Pentagon has decid-
Navy is feeling their pain.
wel-
pute over whether an effort
marks an escalation in a dis-
comed the decision, which
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[PAGE BREAK]

by the Navy to test and de-
ploy advanced underwater
detection systems is danger-
ous to the huge mammals.
The Navy in a statement
said its Littoral Warfare Ad-
vanced Development test
45 miles offshore will go
ahead this coming week but
will "not include active
acoustic sources."
Many scientists believe
that whales and other ma-
rine mammals
mammals can be
harmed by the extremely
high-decibel sounds emit-
ted by the Navy's new sonar
systems.
The animals rely on their
hearing for navigation and
can suffer hearing loss and
other problems because of
the sonar noise, which can
be greater than a 747 jetlin-
er at takeoff.
Two months ago, a dozen
whales beached themselves
in the Bahamas a day after
the Navy used the intense
sonar in exercises there.
Earlier this month, the
Commerce Department's
National Marine Fisheries
Service sent a letter to the
Office of Naval Research
complaining that the Navy's
assessment of potential en-
vironmental damage was in-
adequate.
Crew tracks down
arma-dino fossil
BUENOS AIRES Fossilized
remains of an armadillo-like dino-
saur were discovered during exca-
vation to extend a subway line in
the western end of Buenos Aires.
Paleontologists Fernando No-
vas and Augustin Scanferla of the
Argentine Museum of Natural Sci-
ences identified the fossil as be-
longing to a 365-pound glytodant,
an armadillo-like dinosaur that
had a tail equipped with an
18-pound club.
Officials said they expect to dis-
play the remains at the future Tri-
unvirato subway station, where it
was found.
The animal was estimated to be
about 7 feet long and 4 feet tall.
The excavation crew found it
about 40 feet underground.
Reuters

[PAGE BREAK]

Page D4 New Haven Register, Thursday, January 16, 1997
HEALTH/SCIENCE
Loud: Scientists believe noise hurts ocean wildlife
Continued from Page DI
realized that there must be an inor-
dinate amount of boat noise," he
said. "I found noise levels to be
very high."
At least for whales, which have
extremely acute hearing. Beluga
whales have an external pinhole,
filled with wax to make it
waterproof.
The whale, which is a mammal,
has basically the same components
as the human ear. The tiny sound-
transmitting bones in the middle
ear are suspended on ligaments, to
muffle extraneous noise. Whales
have the sound-sensitive cochlea
that transmit nerve impulses to the
brain.
The beluga whale also has oil-
filled cavities on its jawbone that
act like an additional pair of ears,
Scheifele said.
Tests in aquariums in which the
whales push a paddle for a food
reward when they hear sounds
show that beluga whales have ex- standards allow an unprotected
tremely sensitive hearing.
Unlike larger baleen whales that
communicate over vast distances
with low-frequency songs, the be-,
luga is tuned to high frequencies,
some so high that humans cannot
hear.
High frequency sounds are es-
sential to a fish-hunting whale, be-
cause according to the laws of
physics, the higher the frequency
of the wave, the smaller objects it
can detect. "They see by hear-
ing,' Scheifele said.
Scheifele used hydrophones to
measure sound in water during
June through September, when mi-
grating humpback and fin whales
attract crowds of watchers. These
ships compound the noise pro-
duced by cargo vessels.
Scheifele calculated that the be-
lugas are assaulted by noise that
would be the equivalent of 85
decibels to a person. Federal safety
worker to remain exposed to 85
decibels for no longer than 15 min-
utes. After that, temporary hearing
damage such as ringing in the
may result.
ears
"What the whales are hearing is
the equivalent of 85 decibels,
which is on the brink of temporary
damage. While the whales can
move away from ships, they have
no ways to protect their ears, and
Scheifele said.
cannot escape,"
The mouth of the St. Lawrence
reverberates sound like a swim-
ming pool, making the problem
worse, he said.
Relentless temporary damage
eventually becomes permanent.
Ears of dead beluga whales
from the area show signs of ac-
coustic trauma. Will the whales go
deaf, or somehow adapt? Re-
searchers are not sure. But it is
unlikely that an animal as complex
as a whale can evolve new ears
rapidly.
Scheifele and colleagues have
applied for a grant from the Cana-
dian National Institute of Ecotoxi-
cology to study the effects of noise
on the beluga whales.
Scheifele said his interest was
sparked by experiments to send
sound waves through the ocean
and measure their speed to check
for global warming. "Fortunately,
no damage is likely from that," he
said.
The ears, not to mention the
sound production of beluga
whales, is not well understood.
The proposal includes the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New
York, which would analyze the an-
atomy of the whale ears and deter-
mine if damage is being caused.
Besides solving a biological
mystery, "There are always fortui-
tous discoveries in science,'
" said
Joy Reidenberg, assistant professor
of cell biology and anatomy at
Mount Sinai.
If noise is found to be causing
significant damage, restrictions
could be placed on the number of
whale watching excursions at any
given time, or incoming cargo
ships could be spread out, Schei-
fele said.
"They're mammals too, so this
needs to be done in an intelligent
" he said. "These whales
manner,
have no workman's comp.

[PAGE BREAK]

Hennebec Journal
Thursday
Understand
watershed
To the Editor:
am writing in response to a re-
I cent article appearing in the
Kennebec Journal describing a pro-
posed development project in the
town of Manchester. The develop-
ment project, an outpatient diagnos-
tic center that will be part of the
MaineGeneral Medical Center, is to
be located near the watershed di-
vide of Cobbossee Lake and Bond
Brook
The article described the impor-
tance of this watershed divide, "Part
of the land may flow water to Cob-
bossee Lake or part may flow to
Bond Brook... If it flows to Cob-
bossee, then we need to deal with
the Cobbossee Watershed District.
Runoff can be discharged into Bond
Brook because it dumps into the
Kennebec River and into salt wa-
ter."
Depending on which watershed
the outpatient center ends up resid-
ing in will determine what permits
will be necessary, and how the de-
veloped area will be designed.
If the new outpatient center is
constructed entirely in the Bond
Brook watershed the developers, in
this case MaineGeneral, will not
have to deal with the Cobbossee Wa-
tershed District, or more important-
ly with the runoff from parking ar-
eas and rooftops.
However, if a portion of the pro-
ject is in the Cobbossee watershed,
**
Augusta, Maine
101 page 16 calen 6.
9 Aug 2001
LETTERS: WHAT YOU THINK
BEFORE WE START
THE LOON CALL CONTEST,
MAY I ASK, WHEN IS
THE FULL MOON
CARLSON
KENNEBEC JOURNAL
the value of the natural resource
lost.
The Kennebec County Soil and
Water Conservation District can
help you to minimize your impact on
our natural resources. Contact us at
[AD] 622-7847 ext. 3 or stop by our office
glimpse of the Philip Morris behind
the smokescreen from the minds of
consumers and policymakers.
Kelle Louaillier
Campaign Director
Infact
GOOD
POINT.
WAIT A
MINUTE,
I'M TALKING
TO MY
HANDS?
10 15 72
We need to stop funding and deploy-*
ment of this system.
The Navy wants to deploy its
"Low-Frequency Active" (LFA)
high-powered sonar system across
80 percent of the Earth's oceans.
Designed to detect enemy sub-
marines by bombarding vast ex-

[PAGE BREAK]

HIS TUTION
remove phosphorus before it leaves
the project area and makes its way
toward the lake.
This treatment can be accom-
plished a variety of ways, all of
which will add extra costs to the
project.
Obviously, MaineGeneral would
prefer to build in the Bond Brook
watershed because it will save them
money in construction, due to the
fact that runoff can be directly dis-
charged into Bond Brook.
All of this implies discharging
at the Fou
Green St. in Augusta.
Nate Sylvester
Lakes Specialist
Kennebec County SWCD
Boston, Mass.
tscherna@hotmail.com
Augusta Who's harassing
whom here?
nate-sylvester@me.nacdnet.org
Seeing beyond
runoff into Bond Brook will not have smokescreen
a detrimental impact on the brook.
This is untrue.
Non-point source pollution is a
real threat to Bond Brook's water
quality, as it is to every body of wa-
ter in Maine.
MaineGeneral could build in the
Bond Brook using the same tech-
niques to treat runoff that would be
required if the project were in the
10 Cobbossee watershed, but it would
ud be more expensive.
rea
pu
-AД
m-
Teun
As is often the case in a capitalist
system where natural resources are
grossly undervalued, the environ-
ment and the almighty dollar are
jeu pitted against each other.
-10
Often natural resources aren't
-II! I considered valuable until they have
jean been degraded biologically and eco-
qa nomically.
be a
-old
o
S
At that point they are put on a
-9791 "list," development restrictions are
To put in place, and large amounts of
money are spent to restore water
o pap quality. A proactive approach is
needed to minimize the impact of
new development on our natural re-
sources before they lose their value.
snu Development and conservation can
-doo ar coexist; it just seems to cost more.
However, these up front expenses
dwarfed by the cost of restora-
Z201-0 tion, and are minimal compared to
ep je
are
To the Editor:
udos to the Kennebec Journal
Kfor running the hard-hitting ad
criticizing Philip Morris for extolling
the positive effects of tobacco-relat-
ed deaths in the Czech Republic. A
glimpse at the real Philip Morris be-
hind the public relations onslaught
is rare these days.
In 2000 Philip Morris increased
its corporate advertising by 1712
percent over 1998 (spending $309.9
million). The tobacco giant has
pulled out all the stops in its at-
tempts to convince the U.S. public
that it has changed. The ad reminds
us that human lives, according to
the "Marlboro Men," are valuable
insofar as they benefit the corporate
bottom line.
In the face of ongoing public out-
rage over the report the tobacco gi-
ant commissioned and circulated in
the Czech Republic, the Philip Mor-
ris PR machine is once again in
overdrive, trying to convince us that
the tobacco giant really does care
about people and has seen the error
of its ways.
Even the smoothest PR maneu-
vers and the most heart-warming
commercials will not soon erase this
To the Editor:
I
n the Kennebec Journal of Aug. 3
your page one headline: "Speak-
er Intervenes in Dispute" is ampli-
fied by your first paragraph where
the word "spouse" refers to some-
one who was reported to have been
harassed by Rep. Stavros Mendros.
Almost always when a spouse is
harassed by some man, the ha-
rassed "spouse" is a woman and the
nature of the harassment is usually
rather indecent.
Coupled with your headline, most
people who don't get as far as para-
graph 7 are given the impression
that Rep. Mendros is a lecher.
He is not.
It is no wonder that people con-
sider politics to be a dirty business.
Albert F. Gilman III
Mt. Vernon
Can sonar be
deadly?
To the Editor:
good friend in Vermont has
A alerted us to a new threat to the
Earth's environment: The U.S. Navy
plans to blast the world's oceans
with a dangerous new sonar system.
panses of oceans with sound, &
has the potential to seriously affect
many marine mammals, such as
dolphins and whales that inhabit
Maine waters and other portions of
the oceans.
LFA noise is billions of times
more intense than those known to
disturb whale migration and com-
munication. Deafening noise from
the LFA system will interfere with
the vital biological activities of ma-
rine mammals.
Long-term exposure could push
entire populations over the brink in-
to extinction.
Last year, whales from four dif-
ferent species stranded themselves
and died on beaches across the
northern Bahamas during a Navy
military exercise.
All but one of the dead animals
examined by researchers had suf-
fered hemorrhaging around the in-
ner ear- a sure sign of acoustic
trauma.
The Navy's own report concluded
that it is "highly likely" that the
stranding was caused by the use of
mid-frequency active sonar. Despite
those tragic events, the Navy now
wants to deploy LFA, the most exten-
sive active sonar system ever de-
vised.
We believe that it is uncon-
scionable to expose marine mam-
mals living in Maine waters and
elsewhere to higher intensity sonar.
If you, too, are concerned, you
can call the local offices of your con-
gressional representatives and ask
them to turn off LFA sonar by cut-
ting off its funding.
Savard B. Brewster
Carol W. Brewster.
Manchester
pray can

[PAGE BREAK]

With the Arts
And Entertainment
Copyright 1993 The New York Times
Science Times
The New York Times
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1993
Human Noises in Ocean Held to Threaten Marine Mammals
220
DECIBELS
Dolphins
Airguns, etc.
(geophysical surveys),
200
Ocean tomography (sound probes)
180
The Not-So-Silent Deep
Each oval indicates the typical upper
and lower decibel range of the sounds
produced by some oceanic noise-
makers. All these noise sources
typically exceed a new limit proposed to
enforce the Marine Mammal Protection
Act. Scientists do not know how much
noise of what frequency, type and
duration harms various species of
marine mammals, but suspect the
danger may be greater than realized.
Whales (general)
W
By MALCOLM B. BROWNE
DENVER
ITH the world's oceans increasingly
disturbed with man-made sounds, sci-
entists are facing a vexing dilemma:
ies about sea creatures and their environment are
many of the most important discover
made by the use of sound, but some sounds generat-
ed by scientists may be contributing to the destruc-
tion of the very mammals they want to protect.
At a meeting here of the Acoustical Society of
America this month, scores of experts presented
evidence that the welfare and lives of some marine
mammals were increasingly threatened by noise of
human origin.
The cacophony bombarding animals in the sea
comes mostly from industrial underwater explo-
sions, ocean drilling, oil rig construction, ship en-
gines, icebreakers, submarine sonar devices, su-
personic aircraft and countless other human
sources of noise, not to mention the natural thunder
of cracking polar ice fields, marine earthquakes,
storms, underwater volcanoes and sounds made by
the animals themselves.
. But a certain amount of ocean noise is generated
by scientific research.
Loud, low-pitched noise can travel immense dis-
C1
tances through water, often reaching halfway
around the world from its source, and spreading
and reverberating in all directions. Oceanic noise
pollution has reached such a point that the Federal
Government is considering a ban on some loud
human noises.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is
responsible for enforcement of the Marine Mam-
mal Protection Act of 1972, is considering new
regulations that may limit scientists to making no
ocean noises louder than 120 decibels. The harass-
ment of marine mammals is forbidden by the
Marine Mammal Protection Act, and in April the
Government is expected to define excessive noise
as a form of harassment.
Some experts have observed that 120 decibels
can frighten whales away from their normal mi-
gration routes, contending that noise of this intensi-
ty should be designated as an upper limit.
But the suggested 120-decibel limit has brought a
storm of anxious comment from underwater acous-
ticians, oceanographers, geologists, bioacoustic ex-
perts, climatologists and other scientists whose
research depends on oceanic sound, including the
kind made by underwater loudspeakers and explo-
sions.
At a series of discussions during the acoustics
meeting here, scientists voiced their objections to
Continued on Page C12
Fin whales
Each commercial ship
160
140
An Experiment's Worldwide Echoes
Canadian
research
Vessel
Russlan
Bermuda
research vessel
Canadian
research vessel
Los
Angeles
Samoa
Ice noises in polar regions
India
Ascension I.
Christmas 1.
Geophysical phenomena
(volcanoes, earthquakes)
South
Africa
New Zealand
120
ANCE
Breaking wave in
30-knot wind
Small boat and outboard motor
Kerguelen
research vessel
Hobart
Heard I
Source: John R. Potter Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institute of Oceanography
The New York Times; Illustratida by Patricia J. Wynne
Some scientists say the proposal to limit man-made noises to 120 decibels would shut down research in underwater acoustics and
marine geology. They say underwater noise would have to reach 195 decibels to cause distress equivalent to 120 decibels in the air.
Source: T.M. Georges NOAA
Mawson
The New York Times
1991 Heard Island experiment tested technique for measuring ocean temperature
based on sound speed; 209-decibel test signal was detected at 11 of 14 listening posts

[PAGE BREAK]

EVER
LONDER
NEW HAVEN REGISTER
INSIDE
Classified
D5-12
are they serious?
What are fibroid tumors and
Fib
chang
Fibroids are solid, benign masses that grow in or
outside the uterus, or within the uterine wall. They
can be as small as a pea or as large as a soccer ball, aren'
and less than 1 percent are cancerous.
Ho
About a quarter of women develop fibroids, usual- doctor
ly in their 30s. The growths occur three times more drugs
often among blacks.
ids
ch as
ibuprofen
should be monitored for growth or other
Many doctors recommend that if the fibroids
othering you, there's no reason to worry.
ver, if fibroids cause pain or bleeding, a
nay suggest a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
ptoms worsen, surgery may be required to
the fibroid but preserve the uterus. If your
commends a hysterectomy, get another opin-
gynecologist experienced in removal of
If sy
Most women with fibroids don't have any symp- remove
toms. Others suffer from backaches, constipation, dif- doctor
ficult bowel movements, frequent urination, menstru- ion ag
al problems and rectal pain.
only the
tumors.
or naproxen.
Slither over to snake talk
How heavy is the world's largest snake? How
long is the longest? Is a fear of snakes inborn
or learned? How have these terrestrial crea-
tures managed to be so successful without
legs? These are just a few of the questions that
will be answered on Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. by Dr.
George Whitney, a local veterinarian who has
the only practice in the country limited to
reptiles. The program will be presented in
Yale's Kline Geology Laboratory by the New
[AD] Haven Land Trust. Call 466-7701.
EXPLORE
EVENTS
of
INTERES
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1997 PAGE D1
HEALTH/SCIENCE D
If we find ET,
how will
we know?
s research spacecraft speed through
space toward Mars, it's difficult not to
A space toward
and quantity of extraterrestrial life in the
universe.
Science fiction writers have spent a cen-
tury or more imagining creatures from other
worlds.
Some Earthlings report meeting little
creatures with big heads and almond-shaped
eyes, who arrive in flying saucers.
What was so thrilling about the discov-
ery of possible past Martian life last August
was that the tiny fossils in the meteorite
look-at least superficially -
organisms.
life.
like earthly
In other words, it looked like "real"
ABRAM KATZ
GRAY MATTERS
The little cell-like
bits of rock were reas-
suringly mundane.
Not a fossil of some un-
imaginably horrific
monster, represented by
a huge needle-tooth,
or a hand with 50
fingers.
Or an amoeba
made out of beryllium,
a leaf composed of
silicon.
Teeth and hands
would be relatively
easy to recognize because they're abundant
on Earth, but what if the evidence from Mars
was unidentifiable? Could life on other
planets be so alien that humans would have
trouble recognizing it as such?
This question seems to revolve around
our view of the universe, which in turn is a
Beluga whales live in arctic
and subarctic waters.
WHAT'S all the
RACKET?

[PAGE BREAK]

reflection of ourselves.
Science has shown progressively over
the centuries that Earth is not the center of
the universe, nor the sole planet; that the
sun is one of trillions of stars, and that the
Milky Way is but one galaxy out of
millions.
Astronomers determined that the laws of
physics - the laws of nature are the same
throughout the visible universe. So how
much latitude can life have, and why should
it be any different on any other world?
Stars millions of light years away oper-
ate on exactly the same principles that govern
stars in our galactic neighborhood. Regard-
less of the planet, a rock falls down, like
electrical charges repel, photons travel at
the speed of light and elements undergo the
same reactions.
Could this homogeneity extend to life?
Why shouldn't it?
Earth is the only planet on which we can
observe life, and our planet suggests that
there may be a limited number of animate
designs. Convergent evolution has rendered
birds, insects and mammals with wings. A
spider is about as different from a human as
you can get without going microscopic, yet
it's easy to identify its eyes, enzymes and ge-
netic material.
How stunning, how shocking it would
be to discover that other planets are not pop-
ulated by totally alien life forms, but essen-
tially the same flora and fauna as on Earth.
That would have devastating philosophical
and religious implications. We consider life
miraculous. Maybe it's nothing special.
Or, extraterrestrial life could be com-
pletely different. So different that it is not ea-
sily recognizable as life.
Carl Sagan, the late and great supporter
of the search for extraterrestrial life, said the
"I'll know it when I see it" approach is
too limiting. On the other hand, defining
"life" in a most general sense is not so
simple.
Does life consume, metabolize and ex-
crete? Perhaps, but so does a car. Could life
be characterized by a change in thermo-
dynamic equilibrium (it's warmer than its
surroundings, for instance)?
That's insufficient because many natural
phenomena are out of balance, such as rust
and many inorganic reactions. Sagan pre-
fered the definition of life as anything that re
produces, mutates and reproduces the
mutation.
This could make recognition difficult.
The organisms might only reproduce every
millenium, and mutations could be rare.
Recently Japanese scientists implanted
tiny computers on the backs of cockroaches,
which allowed the humans to steer and
control the insects.
Suppose one of these cockroach/robots
becomes fossilized, and through some cos-
mic cataclysm, ends up on another planet
with intelligent life.
Which part would they think had been
alive?
How could they tell?
Beluga bio
Characteristics:
►Its thick blubber, white color
and lack of dorsal fin allow
the beluga to move freely
among ice floes in freezing
water.
The beluga's body is thick,
muscular and tapered at
each end.
The seven vertebrae
in the beluga's neck are free,
allowing it to nod and turn
its head.
It is one of the most
vocal cetaceans,
earning it the
name "sea canary" from
early whalers.
Size:
► Adult males average
14-16 feet and weigh
3,300 pounds.
Adult females average
13-14 feet and weigh
3,000 pounds.
Source: American Cetacean Society
TELL L.NOG
D
Jon
http://macnelly.
I
Ship
noise
may be
harming
rare
beluga
whales
and
I
other
marine
life
By Abram Katz
Register Science Editor
The ocean brims with
sounds besides the swish of
waves, the songs of cetaceans
and the splash of sea fowl.
There's the drumming of
cargo ship engines, the whine
of trawlers and other ships,
the clatter of off-shore oil
platforms and numerous oth-
er artificial claps, clunks,
bangs and pings.
Marine biologists are now
beginning to realize that this
marine sound pollution may
have a profound and un-
healthy effect on whales, oth-
er sea mammals and fish.
Nowhere has this become
clearer than in the St. Law-
rence River estuary in
Canada.
The pod of unique subarc-
tic beluga whales that lives
near the entrance to the heav-
ily traveled St. Lawrence
Seaway experiences the tha-
lassic equivalent of standing
next to a roaring lawn mower
several hours a day.
Peter M. Scheifele, direc-
tor of bio-acoustic research at
the Marine Science and Tech-
nology Center at the Univer-
sity of Connecticut at Avery
Point, made this finding
while researching the racket
that these whales must
endure.
Marine biologists are stud-
ying the St. Lawrence belu-
gas because the toothed
whales have been decimated
by pollution and are the last
500 members of this sub-spe-
cies. Another 22,000 beluga
whales of a different sub-spe-
cies live in the Arctic.
Besides the chemical as-
sault, the St. Lawrence
whales also could be mal-
nourished and less able to re-
produce because their hearing
may be impaired, Scheifele
said.
This is because like many
whales, the beluga depends
on a sound-emitting sonar
system and a complex hear-
ing mechanism to avoid ob-
stacles, locate fish and mate.
A deaf beluga whale is al-
most as good as dead.
Scheifele is working with
Canadian marine biologists to
devise a plan to save the
whales from extinction and
build population. Pollution
from paper mills and other
industries has been largely
curtailed, he said. "We have
further
mitigate
to
difficulties.
Scheifele, a former subma-
rine sonar officer in the U.S.
Navy, was naturally inter-
ested in the sounds at the
mouth of the St. Lawrence.
From observing whale
watching boats and the steady
stream of commercial ship-
ping to the Great Lakes, "I
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[PAGE BREAK]

2cal 3
Death of whales halts experiment
SAN FRANCISCO (LAT) - A con-
troversial ocean sound experiment
off Half Moon Bay has been halted
indefinitely after the discovery of
three dead humpback whales in the
area, Scripps Institution of
Oceanography officials said
Wednesday.
The whale carcasses were found
just days after the ocean-floor loud-
speaker was turned on repeatedly,
apparently before required steps
were taken to ensure the safety of
the whales and other marine life.
The cause of the whales' death
has not been determined, but
Scripps scientists insist their repeat-
ed 20-minute, 195-decibel transmis-
sions were conducted properly and
are not to blame.
Critics of the project, however,
accused the scientists of acting in
"bad faith" by broadcasting the low,
rumbling sound without monitoring
the effect on marine mammals as
required under their federal permit.
"What is most disturbing is that
Scripps violated the conditions of
their permit and turned on the
sound source," said Sara Wan, vice
chairwoman of the League for
Coastal Protection. "None of the pro-
tocols that were agreed to were fol-
lowed."
Three humpback whales dying in
the same area at the same time is
very unusual, and because of the cir-
cumstances, the cause of their
deaths may be difficult to pin down.
KENNEBEC JOURNAL
MAINE'S OLDEST NEWSPAPER
November 16, 1995
Vol. CLXX
(USPS 143-620)
32 pages
No. 307
Published daily except Christmas
Day at 274 Western Ave., Augusta,
Maine 04330 by Guy Gannett
Communications.
Second-class postage paid at Augusta,
ME. Postmaster: Send address changes to
KENNEBEC JOURNAL,
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Thursday 16 NOV 1995

[PAGE BREAK]

EC12
THE NEW YORK TIMES,
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1993
Human Noises in Ocean Held to Threaten Marine Mammals
Continued From Page Cl
*Carol Fairfield, an official of the Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service. The
agency exercises veto power over
experiments deemed harmful to
J2Whales and seals. Another agency,
the Fish and Wildlife Service, is re-
sponsible for enforcing rules to pro-
tect sea otters, walruses, manatees
2nd polar bears.
Among the scientists opposing a
noise limit of 120. decibels was Dr.
John R. Potter of the Scripps Institu-
Gion of Oceanography at La Jolla,
Calif. "In many ocean regions, sound
sviat a level of 120 decibels is the natural
rakbackground," he said. "Dolphin calls
are far louder up to 220 decibels.
Fin whale calls and commercial ships
opat out about 180 decibels. The noise
* from polar ice packs is about 150, and
breaking waves produce 130.
OCHA
"A legal limit of 120 decibels im-
toposed on the sounds scientists use
vwould effectively close down re-
search in underwater acoustics and
marine geology, as well as offshore
oil prospecting and drilling and many
other activities."
Well-meaning but ill-informed Gov-
ernment regulation could make mat-
ters worse, some scientists argued.
Dr. William C. Cummins, an acous-
tics consultant in San Diego, said that
the National Marine Fisheries Serv-
Gue itself recently engaged him to
study the effects of underwater explo-
sions on Kemp's ridley turtles in the
Gulf of Mexico, only to cancel the
experiment when officials discovered
it would violate the agency's own
regulations.
Dr. Ann Bowles, the senior re-
search biologist at the Hubbs-Sea
World Research Institute in San Die-
go, noted that decibels measured in
ewater are very different from decibel
r measurements taken in air, where a
bise of 110 to 120 decibels causes
pain to human ears. In water, equiva-
lent discomfort to a human diver
would be caused by about 195 deci-
bels.
Ms. Fairfield said that no rigid
noise limit had yet been decided for
the future regulations, but she told
average may reflect long-term tem-
perature changes of the global atmos-
phere, and could reveal the "green-
house" warming from carbon dioxide
pollution that some scientists believe
has begun.
The sound used for this experiment
came from an underwater speaker
broadcasting from deep water near
Heard Island in the Indian Ocean at
an intensity of 209 decibels, roughly
equivalent to 270 decibels in air, about
as loud as a jetliner taking off.
The Heard Island experiment pro-
duced such promising results that a
new and more ambitious experiment
based on the same idea, called Acous-
tic Thermometry of Ocean Climate,
began in January. The three-year
project, sponsored by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agen-
illalen nonorate noise that could
ing on plankton in Chance Cove near
Bull Arm, the site of heavy blasting
last year to deepen a channel and
remove underwater obstructions for
passing tankers.
Whales often become trapped by
fish nets in the area, and scientists
free them whenever possible. But last
year during the blasting, the number
of trapped whales increased sharply,
Dr. Todd reported. Moreover, two of
the whales, after being cut free, be-
came trapped a second time, the first
such instance ever recorded by sci-
entists observing whale behavior in
the region. (The group was able to
keep track of each whale in the area
by the distinctive color pattern of its
flukes.)
"Normally, it's the young whales
that blunder into the fish nets," Dr.
Todd said, "and after one bad experi-
ence, they know enough to stay clear
of the nets, which they may be able to
Dr. Sean Todd/Whales Research Group
detect by acoustic echolocation. But
this was different. One possibility is
that their hearing was impaired by
the explosions, and they could no
longer spot the nets by echolocation."
Two whales were killed during the
scientists' sojourn at Chance Cove by
the underwater detonation of five
tons of explosives. One whale was
apparently killed immediately and
the other survived for two days be-
fore stranding.
One of the leading scientists in the
group, Dr. Darlene R. Ketten, a hear-
ing specialist at Harvard Medical
School, flew to Newfoundland to dis-
sect and examine the whale's head,
using antique flensing knives bor-
rowed from the descendants of whal-
ers living in the area. Essential parts
of the whale's gigantic ears were
filled with blood and pus, she report-
ed, and were so badly injured that the
animals would have been totally deaf
Scientists dissecting the head of a humpback whale on a Newfoundland
beach after an underwater explosion found that its ears were filled with
blood and pus and that it would have been deaf had it survived. The
researchers were Dr. Darlene R. Ketten, left, and Jon Lien. The bony
structure of a humpback whale's ear is shown above.
if they had survived. The whale that
briefly survived the explosion may
have succumbed to meningitis, a fa-
tal infection caused by the ear dam-
age.
Scientists do not know how much
noise of what frequency, type and
duration is enough to harm various
species of marine mammals, but they
suspect that the danger may be
greater than hitherto realized.
It was once assumed, for example,
that the atmospheric shock wave gen-
erated by transport planes flying
faster than the speed of sound could
not project sound into the ocean be-
low, but this assumption was dashed
by one of the reports given at the
acoustics meeting.
Dr. Victor W. Sparrow of Pennsyl-
vania State University presented a
mathematical analysis that showed
the shock wave from a plane flying at
Mach 2.1, or 2.1 times the speed of
sound, would send an acoustic pulse
into the ocean below. The sound
would be sharp and intense to a depth
of about 8 feet, and would be audible
to animals at a depth of 300 to 400
feet.
Enforcement of oceanic noise pol-
lution bans would be next to impossi-
ble, however. Regulations promulgat-
ed by the United States Government
apply only to American waters and to
American citizens throughout the
world; other nations cannot be com-
pelled to observe them on the high
seas.
Still, scientists hope that some of
the worst abuses of noise at sea can
be curbed.
"It may be that the inconvenience
of noise to marine mammals will
remain unavoidable,' Dr. Potter
said, "but we must try to prevent
noise that causes substantive dam-
age.
MZ
Kep y
Joy 27

[PAGE BREAK]

Central Maine Newspapers
KENNEBEC _
A BLETHEN
JOHN CHRISTIE
PRESIDENT
DAVID WARREN
CITY EDITOR
BLETHEN
MAINE
DAVID B. OFFER
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
JOURNAL
NEWSPAPER
GLENN TURNER
NEWS OPERATIONS EDITOR
FRANK A. BLETHEN
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
JACK BEAUDOIN
OPINION PAGE EDITOR
PATRICIA AMMONS
FEATURES EDITOR
MAINE NEWSPAPERS
CHARLES C. COCHRANE
PUBLISHER AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
A MEMBER OF THE SEATTLE TIMES FAMILY OF NEWSPAPERS
EDITORIAL: OUR VIEW
COPER
Opinion
Monday, November 4, 2002
A7
Sonar is killing whales
NATO should stop using deadly force against the sea
We've seen it before, a number of times.
Then we see it again, like a recurring dream,
or nightmare. The whales begin swimming
ashore, right up onto the beach. They lay
scattered, singly or in small groups, across
long stretches of coastline. Then the whales
begin dying. In the far distance, many miles
away, groups of navy ships ply the seas, in
preparation for war.
Now we've seen it once again. On Sept. 24
and 25, at least 15 whales stranded them-
selves on two of the Canary Islands. Res-
cuers pushed six still-living whales back out
to sea. It's not known if they survived, but at
least nine other whales died. The whales
were beaked whales from three different
species.
Necropsies were conducted on eight of
the dead whales by faculty of the Veterinary
Department of the University of Las Palmas
de Gran Canaria and members of a local
whale research organization. The prelimi-
nary report states that the whales had been
healthy and had fed recently, but they had
suffered from cranial hemorrhaging. Michel
Andre, a veterinary researcher said "autop-
sies on the dead whales found brain damage
consistent with impacts from military sonar
signals."
At the time of the stranding, NATO ma-
neuvers called Neo Tapon 2002 were taking
place off the Canary Islands. Large numbers
of ships, submarines and airplanes, includ-
ing U.S. Navy ships, were involved. Although
military officials have acknowledged that
acoustic exercises were being carried out,
the types of sonar in use has not been made
public.
six
Whales have become stranded en masse
upon Canary Islands beaches before
other times since 1985. It has been docu-
mented that in at least four of these, naval
maneuvers were taking place offshore at the
time.
Naval maneuvers have been closely
linked with mass strandings in a number of
other places as well. While strandings of
whales have been occurring for ages, they
generally involve whales from a single
species. Strandings that involve several
species are more unusual. There have now
been 10 recorded mixed-species mass
strandings involving beaked whales. In each
case, naval maneuvers were occurring in
the area at the time. A great many whales
have likely been killed by sonar, but far from
any shore, they simply sank, unknown to us.
Naval high-intensity sonar is killing
whales. The U.S. Navy and National Marine
Community
Compass
Russell Way
NE
Fisheries Service admitted as much in a
joint report on a mass stranding involving
four species of dolphins and whales that took
place in the Bahamas in 2000. It acknowl-
edged that the Navy's mid-range tactical
sonar caused the stranding and deaths of
these whales.
While it's obvious that high-intensity
sonar is killing whales, its effect on the rest
of ocean life is unknown, as no studies have
been done. However, we do know some
things. Research has shown that hearing in
fish has been damaged by even moderate
levels of noise. One study has found that
sound levels of 40-50 decibels above that of
the normal environment have caused both
the viability of fish eggs and the growth rates
of fry to decrease significantly.
Fisherman in the United Kingdom have re-
cently become concerned that Royal Navy
sonar exercises may be causing a decline in
fish stocks, and are calling for an investiga-
tion into the sonar's effect on fish. Concern
was expressed in a report by the National Re-
search Council on the potential effects of
loud, low-frequency sound on ocean life, in-
cluding zooplankton, fish and turtles. It went
on to say that if the food chain is affected, all
of life in the oceans will be adversely affected.
The U.S. Navy may soon be broadcasting
tremendous amounts of very loud, low-fre-
quency sound when it begins deployment of
its Low Frequency Active sonar. It was given
approval by the fisheries service to do this in
July. Ironically, the fisheries service is the
agency charged with protecting marine
species. While the agency's decision was
supposed to have been scientifically based,
it's clear that science had very little to do
with it. In a pathetic attempt to justify its de-
cision, the agency stated that marine mam-
mals were "unlikely to be injured." Low Fre-
quency Active sonar will be deployed at an
effective source level of around 240 decibels,
and will fill tens of thousands of square miles
of ocean with extremely loud, dangerous lev-
els of sound. It was NATO's Low Frequency
Active sonar exercises that most likely
caused the mass stranding and deaths of
Low Frequency Active
sonar will be deployed at
an effective source level of
around 240 decibels, and
will fill tens of thousands of
square miles of ocean with
extremely loud, dangerous
levels of sound.
whales on the coast of Greece in 1996.
While awareness of some of the problems
caused by naval deployment of high-intensi-
ty sonar is increasing, so is concern - and
with this concern, a determination to protect
the oceans upon which all life depends. The
Natural Resources Defense Council, joined
by a coalition of organizations, has filed a
lawsuit to stop Navy deployment of Low Fre-
quency Active sonar. In another suit, the
council is challenging a Navy program that
tests new sonar, such as the one used in the
Bahamas incident, arguing that such tests
first must undergo a full environmental re-
view, as required by law.
There is little question that deployment of
naval high-intensity sonar also is in viola-
tion, in a number of specific ways, of the
United Nations Law of the Sea Convention,
which states that all countries have "an
obligation to protect and preserve the ma-
rine environment." The United States did
not ratify this U.N. convention, but it is still
obliged to follow its principles, as are all na-
tions, as it has become international law.
There is a growing awareness that all life
depends upon the oceans. If ocean life is be-
ing threatened by use of high-intensity
sonar, then we are all less secure. Join with
others who are taking action to protect the
oceans. Please contact your congressional
delegation and strongly urge them to take
meaningful action to stop assaults upon
ocean life by these sonars. Maybe then we
will see an end to the recurring nightmare.
Russell Wray of Sullivan works with the national
organization Citizens Opposing Active Sonar
Threats.

[PAGE BREAK]

Bridge pont, CONN
B3
CONNECTICUT POST
Thursday, November 21, 2002
Agriculture Dept. begins
fight against listeria
The government is tightening scrutiny of
companies that process beef, pork and
poultry for deli meats and hot dogs but
don't test countertops, equipment and
other parts of their plants for listeria.
The Agriculture Department issued a
directive Monday to its inspectors
ordering increased oversight for
companies that don't have testing
programs of their own or who keep the
results of such tests to themselves.
"What inspectors will do is this
intensified testing- environmental testing
-in those plants that do not do their own
environmental testing or that don't share
their data with us," said Dr. Elsa Murano,
USDA undersecretary for food safety.
Until now, the government has required
meat processors to test their products for
presence of the pathogen but not their
plants and equipment. Those plants that
did do such environmental testing did not
have to share the results with federal
inspectors.
The directive is in response to outbreaks
of listeriosis in the Northeast and in New
England states this summer that killed
seven people and sickened another 52.
Heart fixed with
tissue from self
New research suggests doctors may
someday fix hopelessly damaged hearts
with bits of tissue from other parts of the
body.
Preliminary studies conducted in the
United States and Europe raise the
possibility that cells taken from bone
marrow or muscles can be used to revive
seemingly dead patches of heart muscle.
"If this proves efficacious, we will
improve the quality of life of our patients
and their survival. This will replace heart
transplants," said Dr. Nabil Dib of the
Arizona Heart Institute.
The inability of the heart to pump
forcefully enough, a condition called heart
failure, is a large and growing health
problem afflicting an estimated 5 million
people in the United States alone.
Two years ago, a French doctor
described a novel alternative: He put
millions of immature muscle cells into the
badly damaged heart of a 72-year-old
man. His heart began to pump more
powerfully, although it was unclear
whether the benefit came from the new
cells or from bypass surgery he received
at the same time.
That physician, Dr. Philippe Manasche of
Bichat Hospital in Paris, has now repeated
the approach on 10 patients, and similar
experiments are being conducted by
teams in the United States, Germany,
England and Poland.
Soccer headgear uncool
to researchers, too

[PAGE BREAK]

B 4 CONNECTICUT POST
Death Notices
Louise Virelli Ciaramella
BRIDGEPORT
Joseph Hailey
Eddie Davis
D
CLARKE
ols Clark
Dorothy T. Sturdivant
Lee F. Verner
b DERBY
James P. Austin
MILFORD
Stephen Kertesz
Emest Hillman Jr.
Steven Hidu
James M. Gallagher
FAIRFIELD
Dickson Glass
Vincent J. Esposito
William Gabor Treszi Jr.
John Jack Nicolson III
NORWALK
died Frid
in Bridge
Bridgepo
therapist
Home. S
the late F
ney Nich
River,
Colo., and
field, Sve
daughters
Edlund of
Wesley C
Survivors
ation and
the Greyh
M
Stephen J. Kochiss Jr.
Maine; ni
Frederick
STAMFORD
several n
Wilma Brudnak McNamara
Friends a
STRATFORD
Edward J. Dembowski Sr.
Ednamae Nichols Clarke
Rose Didio
Michael J. Zuber
Gertrude Laneville Paige
Dr. John F. McGarry
Edith J. Hideg Kennedy
hours. Th
Milford. T
St. Peter
Novembe
memorial
make cor
ory to the
1058
N.
Padded soccer headbands and foam
helmets aren't very popular with the
kids they're aimed at. Now a new study
suggests young players may not benefit
from wearing them: They do little to
reduce the impact on the brain when a
player heads the ball. Researcher Philip
V. Bayly at Washington University in St.
Louis concludes that wearing headgear
may provide a "false sense of security."
Using a machine that tossed soccer
balls at a head-shaped metal form
equipped with sensors and mounted on
a rubber neck, the researchers found
that four types of soccer headgear
provided "no measurable protection" at
ball speeds of 20 and 26 mph, common
in soccer heading.
Only at 34 mph did the headgear
reduce the impact even slightly, by
about 10 percent.
Navy scales back
ocean sonar tests
The U.S. Navy agreed to temporarily
scale back the testing of a new sonar
system designed to detect enemy
submarines, two weeks after a federal
magistrate blocked the testing, citing
concerns about marine life.
The Navy agreed to the move under
significant pressure from
environmentalists.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte
had blocked the Navy from experimenting
with the system, which was to be routinely
tested throughout the majority of the
world's oceans. The accord, a compromise
between the government and the
ecologists who filed a lawsuit, lasts seven
months while the Navy's operating permit
is being challenged in federal court.
-WIRE REPORTS
e
st
n
DI
ild
10
Ce
ce
of
a
UP
DA
rvi
ro
y.
m

[PAGE BREAK]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
SOUND AND FURY
A whale that beached itself
in the Bahamas in 2000
BY BETSY CARPENTER
W
hale biologist
Ken
Balcomb always gave
what he calls the
"standard disclaimer"
to the Earthwatch vol-
unteers who would
come to the Bahamas to help him and his
collaborator and wife, Diane Claridge,
study Cuvier's beaked whales. The ani-
mals are elusive, he would warn them,
usually over morning coffee at the beach
house he and Claridge rented each sea-
son. The odds were pretty slim that they
50
would spot one of these small whales
during their 10-day visit. But on March
15, 2000, before the new crew had even
heard the disclaimer, they'd seen their
first beaked whale.
"Ken, come quick!" shouted a research
assistant who'd gone out for an early-
morning walk. As Balcomb and Claridge
ran down to the beach they could see a
young whale stuck in the sand around its
midsection, still sweeping its tail and
up
down, as if to complete its suicide run up
onto dry land. The tide was dropping, so
Balcomb, Claridge, and their Earthwatch
crew got to work quickly, pivoting the 16-
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, DECEMBER 23, 2002
foot creature and then, with each wave,
nudging it deeper into the water. Once
freed, it swam strongly out to sea. But
before they could raise a cheer, the whale
turned and headed back to the beach.
Balcomb and his team had plunged back
in the water to try to herd the whale out
to sea again when a local fisherman
came by with the news that another
whale had beached itself a mile and a
half down the shore. Then a frantic
neighbor called, asking to borrow a sea
kayak-he, too, had been trying to keep
a disoriented whale off the sand. And so
it went all day long.
Whale deaths blamed on sonar
have triggered a heated debate
about man-made noise in the sea
Depth charge
Potent beams of sound from Navy sonar, used to
detect-submarines, apparently injured and confused
beaked whales, leading these small cetaceans to
beach themselves and die. Beaked whales can dive
to depths of almost a mile to feed on squid; no one
knows how deep they were when they were injured.
In this 3-D image,
hemorrhages (red)
are evident in the
head of an injured whale.
In the end, a total of 14 beaked whales,
along with two minke whales and a spot-
ted dolphin, ran aground across a hun-
dred miles of Bahamas coast. Seven are
known to have died. The shy, deep-diving
beaked whales have met similar sad ends
on beaches worldwide, from the Galápa-
gos Islands and the Lesser Antilles to Cor-
sica and Greece. In September, a pair of
beaked whales came ashore in the Gulf of
California, and 15 in the Canary Islands,
off northwest Africa. And while so-called
strandings of other kinds of whales are
common, they are usually blamed on dis-
orientation and illness. In this case, the
cause is suspected to be man-made noise.
In the Bahamas, the whales flopped up
onto Balcomb's doorstep while, offshore,
the U.S. Navy was conducting exercises
with powerful sonars. In the Canaries,
a multinational fleet comprising at least
58 boats and six submarines was engaged
in maneuvers when the whales began
fleeing the sea. In he Gulf of California,
a seismic research vesseltowing an array
of air guns was probe Earth's crust
with powerful pro x-frequency
sound. In fact, masstrandings in
volving beaked what
appear to be link
TIM AYLEN AP
GRAPHIC BY DOUG STERN USNSW (NET) D. NETTEN, WOODS HOLE OCEANDA INSTITUTION
recent decade
sources of los
U.S.N
sound in the ocean, says Charlie Potter,
an expert on marine mammal strandings
at the Smithsonian Institution in Wash-
ington, D.C. The incidents have fed an in-
creasingly raucous debate about the
threat posed to whales and other marine
mammals by all sorts of noisy machines
at work in the oceans-from super-
tankers and cruise ships to oil rigs.
Quiet, please. The Navy itself has ac-
knowledged that the earsplitting, 235-
decibel-plus screeches emitted by its
sonar played a role in the Bahamas
strandings. But the Navy and others who
inject loud sounds into the ocean now face
wider concerns that could mute their
equipment, at least for now.
Last October, an environmental or-
ganization filed suit against the Nation-
al Science Foundation, which funds the
seismic research vessel that was operat-
ing in the Gulf of California, for failing to
conduct a review of the blasts' impact on
marine mammals. A judge issued a re-
straining order halting research with the
towed array until the analysis could be
completed. The Navy has come under fire
from environmentalists over a low-fre-
quency sonar system it is developing to
detect a new generation of quiet, diesel-
electric submarines. The Navy says the
system has never harmed whales, but last
month a judge limited tests of the system
to a 1 million-square-mile zone of the Pa-
cific off the Philippines and Japan pend-
ing a trial. Noise, it seems, has joined
toxics, oil spills, and overfishing as a rec-
ognized threat to sea life, even though the
extent of the danger is still unclear.
Ken Balcomb's quick action on March
15 helped pin down the link, long sus-
pected, between sonar and strandings.
After getting word of a third beached
whale that day, Balcomb put in a call to
Bob Gisiner, manager of marine mam-
mal science and technology programs at
the Office of Naval Research in Wash-
ington. To document the sounds that the
whales had been exposed to, Balcomb
urged him to save acoustic records from
Navy hydrophones positioned in local
waters. When Balcomb said he would try
to freeze the ears of whales that died,
Gisiner suggested that he cut off whole
heads instead. More detailed dissections
could be conducted, Gisiner said, by
other whale-acoustics scientists.
The upshot of the investigation was a
report issued by the Navy and the De-
partment of Commerce that described
herrhages "consistent with acoustic
Sa in and around the ears of the
ked whales. The reput con-
we intensive active se
am gets the most

[PAGE BREAK]

sonable explanation for the injuries, the
sounds the animals heard were not in-
tense enough to have killed them direct-
ly. Instead, the pings drove the whales up
onto beaches, where they died from over-
heating and cardiovascular collapse.
Few scientists dispute that it was the
whales' response to the noise that did
them in, not the noise itself. The Smith-
sonian's Potter points out that a lethal
blast would have caused all kinds of an-
imals-from fish to pygmy whales-to
wash ashore. Darlene Ketten, a biologist
with the Harvard Medical School and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
performed three-dimensional CT scans
on the whales' heads to look for trauma.
She says that had the pings been at
deadly levels she would have seen
"blowouts of membranes in the inner
and middle ear," among other injuries.
If the whales hadn't beached them-
selves, she says, "I would have expected
them to recover."
Some scientists take issue, however,
with what they argue is the report's impli-
cation that the Bahamas strandings were
a rare misfortune. The report suggests, for
example, that unusual water conditions
that day may have channeled the pings and
that beaked whales are especially sensitive
to sonar. Narrowing the focus of concern
in that way is unwarranted, asserts Lindy
Weilgart of Dalhousie University in Nova
Scotia, who studies sperm whales. It "re-
ally oversteps what we know about whale
hearing and behavior."
assump-
The din below. Indeed, scientists con-
cur, there's a lot that isn't known about
whale acoustics. Giving a whale a hear-
ing test, says Ketten, "is not a trivial prob-
lem." So they have had to make a
tions. One of them is reassuring: Whales'
ears cannot be preternaturally fragile be-
cause the environment in which they
evolved is a naturally noisy one. Winds
riffling the surface, raindrops, and snap-
ping shrimp all contribute noise beneath
the waves. Lightning strikes produce the
loudest sounds in the ocean, as high as
260 decibels at the source. Many of the
big whales themselves produce aston-
ishingly loud noises. Some baleen whales
produce low-frequency calls that can
reach 180 decibels or more, intense
enough at close range to bruise human
lung tissue.
Yet whale biologists also assume that
most cetaceans can hear-and thus can
potentially be harmed by-midfrequency
sonars like the one used in the Bahamas.
That's because it's generally thought that
animals' hearing is tuned to the same fre-
quency range at which they vocalize, and
most cetaceans, from great whales to dol-
52
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Collateral damage?
Dozens of multiple strandings of
beaked whales have been reported in
recent decades. At least nine occurred
when naval or other ships were said
to be maneuvering nearby:
DATE
April 1974
Dec. 1974
Feb. 1985
LOCATION
Bonaire
Corsica
Canary Islands
NUMBER
13
Nov. 1988
Oct. 1989
May 1996
March 2000
Sept. 2002
Sept. 2002
Canary Islands
Canary Islands
Greece
Bahamas
Canary Islands
Mexico
25
12
14
15
phins, emit at least some midrange sound.
Indeed, whalers have long known that
midrange pings can impel frightened
whales to run at the surface instead of div-
ing. By the same argument, blue, finback,
humpback, and other baleen whales,
which make low-frequency sounds, might
be most vulnerable to the very low
"booms" emitted by the Navy's new, long-
range sonar system, called SURTASS LFA,
for "surveillance towed array sensor sys-
tem low frequency active."
The Navy, however, says it is encour-
aged by studies it funded in 1997 and
1998, which exposed blue, finback,
humpback, and gray whales off the coasts
of California and Hawaii to signals from
a test array. The sonar has a remarkable
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, DECEMBER 23, 2002
range. Under the right water conditions,
its signal will travel hundreds of miles be-
fore dropping below 120 decibels, which
many scientists thought might be the
threshold at which the sound would
begin disrupting whale behavior. Yet the
whales turned out to be relatively toler-
ant of the signals.
In one experiment, the array was
placed a mile and a quarter from the
shore, in the middle of the whales' his-
torical migration corridor. When the
sonar began broadcasting at 180 decibels,
the whales deviated from their path, but
by only a mile or so. When the test array
was placed outside the corridor, about
3 miles from the shore, the whales stayed
right on track. In another study, singing
humpbacks exposed to signals between
120 and 150 decibels sang longer songs
instead of quitting the area. "Yes, we saw
reactions," says Christopher Clark, di-
rector of the bioacoustics lab at Cornell
University, "but not all the time. And
when we did see them, the animals
seemed to resume their normal activities
within tens of minutes and a couple of
miles [of the signal source]."
To Clark, what's known so far suggests
sonar will not be the "death knell of the
oceans." But the problem of noise is big-
ger than sonar, he says. Sonar is part of
a man-made "acoustic smog" that could
be threatening marine mammals in ways
that are not fully understood. One major
contributor is the air guns and drilling
rigs of the offshore oil industry. "I can't
hear blue whales off the Grand Banks
anymore because there's so much seis-
mic exploration in Canadian waters,"
Clark says, "It's 'ka-bam, ka-bam, ka-
bam' every 11 seconds, 24 hours a day,
for days on end."
Shipping is another big source of
acoustic smog. Supertankers, icebreak-
ers, cruise ships, even tugboats and fer-
ries have helped boost the level of ambi-
ent noise 10-fold in the past 40 years in
the frequency band that whales use to
communicate, says John Hildebrand of
the University of California-San Diego
and the Scripps Institution of Oceanog-
raphy. Many scientists suspect that the
noise has shrunk the range over which
the big whales can hear one another from
about 1,000 miles to 100.
Many industries that inject a lot of
noise into the ocean have gotten used to
operating in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind
fashion, says Cornell's Clark. But he's not
entirely despairing. Now that regulators
are coming to grips with the idea that
noise can be a pollutant, innovative peo-
ple will begin devising ways to quiet the
cacophony under the seas..
IGOR ZAREMBO-ITAR/TASS
NOOVER STORY
A Christian
dynasty
S WORLD REPORT
U.S.News
NEWS YOU CAN USE
DECEMBER 23, 2002 VOLUME 133 NUMBER 24 WWW.USNEWS.COM
ordrams son
Hond his
AC Graham
*Cenerging
eir father's long
ow to make their
mark. But will they be
able to preserve the
Graham dynasty?
By Jeffery L. Sheler
PAGE 36
NATION & WORLD
14 L.A. story
Bill Bratton, the city's
new top cop, worked
wonders in New York.
How will his
script
read now?
18 One war at a time
North Korea remains
part of the "axis of evil"
19 After the fall
With Cardinal Law's resignation, will
the crisis be stemmed at last?
23 Trent Lott: "I was winging it"
After a presidential rebuke, the Missis-
sippi Republican does some explaining
24 Those Dixiecrat days
"All the worst morons in the South"
supported Strom Thurmond
26 Getting out of jail free
Fines and restitution go uncollected
MONEY & BUSINESS
30 Putting a new face forward
Is Bush's new economic team more
than a cosmetic enhancement?
32 Yowza! You go, girl
The sassy editor of Us Weekly
has sparked a new style of
tabloid war
CULTURE & IDEAS
FROM TOP CHARLIE ARCHAMBAULT FOR USNAWR, DAVID BUTOW-CORBIS SABA FOR USNAWR, ELECTRONIC ARTS
36 Cover story: All in the family
As Billy Graham steps down, will his
kids shape the future of evangelism?
HEALTH & MEDICINE
44 The smallpox conundrum
What's the best way to protect our-
selves against bioterrorist attack?
46 Exercise rights-and wrongs
An hour workout or 30 minutes? Walk
or run? Does gardening count?
49 Vital signs: Rating hospital quality
Java jitters; blocking Internet health
sites; untreated kids in jail
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
50 Sound and fury in the sea
Whale deaths blamed on
sonar have triggered a
heated debate
53 Joystickineme
The latest video games
rival movie in rich detail
and lifelike chica
54 Futures: The
Detecing
fanciful in
gene ther
planet
Mars;
Sight;
COVER: PHOTOGRAPH BY JE
ALLAN
RADCSIS SY
(INSET, FROM LEFT) MIK ADASKAVE G-BOSTON
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS
Washington Whispers
26
People
Letters
John Leo On Society
10 Top of the Week
25 Gloria Borger On Politics
34 Lou Dobbs
The Dobbs Report
55 Bernadine Healy, M.D.
On Health
56 Mortimer B. Zuckerman
Editorial
Copyright ©2002, by US News & World Report Inc. All
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is published weekly with combined issues on January 28,
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Printed in the USA

[PAGE BREAK]

Kennebec Journal, Aigusta, Maine
Central Maine Newspapers
Nation
Saturday, February 1, 2003
C7
Navy dispatches sea lions
to detect enemies in Gulf
Many marine mammals at work in military effort
By LISA HOFFMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
It may be unknown whether the
Navy will tap its elite SEALS for
any coming war with Iraq, but an-
other crew of sleek underwater op-
eratives-sea lions-has already
deployed to the Persian Gulf.
The Navy has dispatched sever-
al of its 20 California sea lions to
Bahrain, where they are demon-
strating their skill at detecting ene-
mies bent on sabotaging a warship
or port
The program is
home to about 70
dolphins as well as
the sea lions, all of
which are studied
for insights into
their extraordinary
La Puzza said. When the boat ar- vice intends to keep the creatures
Irives at the search point, the ani- out of combat and well-monitored
mal jumps over the side and hunts in the Gulf environment.
for mines or other objects. Once
In fact, Jennifer Witherspoon of
The Associate Press
the item is found, the sea lion at- The Marine Mammal Center, a
taches a strong line to it and then Sausalito, Calif., nonprofit group
bolts back to the surface, ready for that rescues and rehabilitates sick
the reward of a couple of fish for and injured sea lions and dolphins, A Mark 5 Marine Mammal System sea lion, top photo, attaches
hopes the mission will help edu- a recovery line to an object to be recovered from the sea floor.
the effort.
In Bahrain, the sea lions will be cate the public about sea lions' Above, a sea lion from the Navy's project trains in the Shallow-
smarts and heart.
hunting both explosives and hu-
man swimmers. If they find either,
they will tag them or even attack
Water Intruder Detection program.

[PAGE BREAK]

C8
Saturday, February 1, 2003
World
Central Maine Newspapers
be key
Saddam's flight could be
democratically elected presi-
was in charge after ousting a
brutal Haitian military junta
poor Caribbean island, where a
more than an hour from the
troopers were airborne, no
Nearly 2,900 U.S. Army para-
tary intervention in Haiti.
ton to begin a major U.S. mili-
down from President Bill Clin-
The command had come
Scripps Howard News Service
By LISA HOFFMAN
dent.
ly
Offshore, more than 1,800 ful-
armed
awaited the
Marines
and geared-up
Analysis word
launch
the
to
assault, but
amphibious
Now, the Bush administra-
Carter said at the time.
try of the forces into Haiti,"
was the inexorability of the en-
"The key to our success...
in the towel.
that led the Haitians to throw
clear commitment to go to war,
military invasion, and Clinton's
said it was the imminent U.S.
who was one of the negotiators,
cut, former President Carter,
Shortly after the deal was
country.
to give up power and leave the
Cedras and his cronies agreed
tee of amnesty, Lt. Gen. Raoul
forces. Armed with a guaran-
the vastly superior American
over the lost cause of battling
itary strongmen to choose exile
gotiators convinced Haiti's mil-
Sept. 18, 1994, a trio of U.S. ne-
at nearly the last minute on
with brute force and terror. In the end, though, these dictators fled into exile. A look at a few of the most
They were reviled by much of the world and responsible, collectively, for tens of thousands of deaths of those they ruled
Brutal dictators: Where are they now?
key to peace
IDI AMIN
was rebuffed by his former
Uganda several years ago, but
Red Sea. He tried to retum to
passes the time with dips in the
meat flown from Uganda and
Amin, 77, has his favorite goat
Now living well near Jeddah,
expenses.
a monthly allotment for living
offered him a haven, along with
by Amin's troops. Saudi Arabia
Uganda in retaliation for an attack
Tanzanian forces stormed
reign ended in 1979, when
Ugandans. His eight-year bloody
more than 400,000 of his fellow
presided over the murder of
notorious dictators, Amin
One of the 20th century's most
Lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dictator, Uganda (1964-79)
homeland.
ALFREDO
Lives in Brasilia, Brazil
Dictator, Paraguay (1954-89)
STROESSNER
D
J
notable:
the international
'The game's up,
the towel and said
Hussein threw in
delighted if Saddam
"I would be
has
The service is quick to empha-
size that the federally protected
mammals are not there to be com-
batants. Instead, the portly sea li-
ons will be used to locate undersea
divers or swimmers who may be
attempting to detonate a bomb or
plant a mine to blow up U.S. or al-
lied assets.
"This is a real-world environ-
ment, an opportunity to see how"
the sea lion corps performs under
circumstances far different from
their training environment back
home, said Tom LaPuzza, a
Mammal Program in San Diego.
spokesman for the Navy's Marine
The program is home to about
70 dolphins as well as the sea lions,
all of which are studied for insights
ter skills as well as for ways their
into their extraordinary underwa-
benefit.
intelligence and sensory capabili-
ties can be used for the nation's
underwater skills as
well as for ways
their intelligence
and sensory
capabilities can be
used for the
nation's benefit.
are fast, enthusiastic learners.
Among other things, the Navy
has trained sea lions to find and
tag undersea mines and torpe-
does, which then are defused or
mals' human counterparts.
otherwise disposed of by the mam-
Before sea lions joined the ser-
vice, Navy divers were handi-
capped by the limited amount of
sea, their limited vision and range,
and their vulnerability to the va-
time they could spend deep under
garies of strong currents. Divers
compression chambers in case
they ascended too quickly, as well
also had to be accompanied by re-
and personnel on the surface.
able to dive as deep as 650 feet and
as by other support apparatuses
All that's needed for a sea lion
mission is a small rubber boat, two
or three handlers and the
While dolphins are well-known
for their special gifts, sea lions are
less so. The Navy says the power-
-in addition to keen vision that al-
ful, sometimes 600-pound crea-
their extremely sensitive underwa-
ter hearing and directional ability
tures are particularly prized for
low-light underwater environment
than humans can. They also are
lows them to see far better in the
animal,
man crewmates.
Restraining device to help their hu-
This is not the first time U.S.
marine mammals have been used
in the Persian Gulf. In the late
1980s, dolphins escorted Kuwaiti
oil tankers, and during the 1990-91
and port security. None of them is
now in the region.
war, dolphins were used for ship apisano poi
The Navy experiments with ma-
rine mammals began in 1960 with
a study of the hydrodynamics of a
Pacific dolphin. Dolphins per-
formed "swimmer defense" mis-
sions during the Vietnam War. In
recent years, even whales have
been drafted for undersea duty.
Periodically, the Navy has come
under fire from animal-rights
groups for alleged shortcomings in
the care of the animals or for
putting the creatures in harm's
way.
In 1990, for instance, an outcry
against plans to use bottlenose dol-
phins to guard a nuclear subma-
rine base caused the Navy to can-
cel the program, after former Navy
trainers said the animals were be-
ing taught to kill enemy divers with
sives.
nose-mounted guns and explo-
Marine
mammal protection
groups have no immediate com-
plaints about the current sea lion
mission, particularly upon learning
that the Navy has two veterinari-
ans tending them and that the ser-
himself on his porch.
Brasilia, where he can
quietly with his wife in a mansion
refuge. Now 89, Stroessner lives
accepted Brazil's invitation of
Ousted by a coup in 1989, he
occasionally be spotted sunning
tens of thousands.
but it is believed to be in the
or tortured during his regime,
number of Paraguayans killed
No good estimate exists of the
police state that lasted 35 years.
on to become the ironman of a
government in 1954 and went
overthrew Paraguay's
An army general, Stroessner

[PAGE BREAK]

10 dat 2003 FRIDAX page 13 wal5-6
Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Main
Study shows sonar
causes 'bends'-like
sickness in whales
San Francisco Chronicle
Powerful underwater sonar
creates tissue-destroying gas
bubbles in the vital organs of
whales and other marine mam-
mals, causing a fatal sickness
similar to the "bends" that
deep-sea divers undergo when
they surface too quickly, a new
study contends.
say
For the first time, scientists
they have pinpointed the reason
that whales mysteriously beach
themselves and die after expo-
sure to certain types of sonar.
The study was based on an in-
ternational naval exercise in the
Atlantic a year ago that caused
the stranding of 14 beaked
whales on beaches in the Ca-
nary Islands. Analysis of the
whales within hours of their ex-
posure revealed the cause, ac-
cording to a team of British and
Spanish researchers.
The group's solution to the
long-standing mystery has just
been published in the scientific
journal Nature.
In another incident more than
three years ago, a group of 17
medium-sized beaked whales
stranded themselves in the Ba-
hamas when US Navy chine
Navy and the government's Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service.
Although their report directly
blamed the sonar signals for
mass strandings, it concluded
that more research was needed
to explain why the sonar had dis-
rupted the whales so severely.
Daniel Costa, a marine-mam-
mal expert at the University of
California-Santa Cruz, who has
consulted with a project using
low-frequency sonar signals to
study deep-water temperature
changes, said Wednesday that
he and most of his colleagues
agree that the far more power-
ful and relatively high-frequency
sonar waves used by naval ves-
sels are in fact the cause of
mass whale strandings.
However, he said he considers
that the evidence proposed by
the British and Spanish re-
searchers provides only a "high-
ly tenuous" explanation for the
disorientation and death of the
deep-diving whales.
Other California experts, un-
certain about the proposed ex-
planation, referred a reporter's
inquiry to Robert Gisiner of the
Office of Naval Research in Ar-
lington, Va., who is a lo

[PAGE BREAK]

Hennebec Journal
Augusta, Maine
A4 Wednesday, August 27, 2003
BRIEFS
Judge limits use
of new Navy sonar
SAN FRANCISCO Citing
concerns for marine mammals, a
federal judge on Tuesday limited
the Navy's use of a new sonar
system designed to detect ene-
my submarines.
The decision scuttles the
Navy's plans to experiment with
the low-frequency sonar through-
out the majority of the world's
oceans, confining it instead to ar-
eas with few marine mammals
and endangered species.
The case stems from a law-
suit by the Natural Resources
Defense Council and other envi-
ronmental organizations that
claimed the powerful sonar sys-
tem harasses and can even kill
marine mammals.

[PAGE BREAK]

Central Maine Newspapers *
A
JOURNAL
KENNEBEC
BLETHEN MAINE NEWSPAPER
JOHN CHRISTIE
PRESIDENT
GLENN TURNER
NEWS OPERATIONS EDITOR
BLETHEN
FRANK A. BLETHEN
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
DAVID B. OFFER
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
PATRICIA AMMONS
FEATURES EDITOR
MAINE NEWSPAPERS
CHARLES C. COCHRANE
PUBLISHER AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
A MEMBER OF THE SEATTLE TIMES FAMILY OF NEWSPAPERS
EDITORIAL: OUR VIEW
Opinion
Monday, November 17, 2003 A5
Military free to wage war
on fish, marine mammals
These are sad times. Now that Congress
has passed the Defense Authorization Bill,
the military is free to escalate its undeclared
war on life in the oceans, in the name of na-
tional security.
Included in the bill were exemptions for
the military to the Endangered Species Act
and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, two
critical environmental laws which, when en-
forced, have offered protection to marine
mammals and other threatened and endan-
gered species. Both laws already contained
provisions which could exempt the military
on a case-by-case basis. Though a General
Accounting Office report concluded that
these laws did not hamper military readi-
ness, the military insisted it be exempted,
and Congress agreed.
As far as the military is concerned, these
laws are now largely a thing of the past. Not
that the military necessarily complied with
they did not. For example, one can look at
these laws in the past; in fact, some times
the Navy's secret development and early
testing of its low-frequency active sonar,
done in violation not only of these laws but
also the National Environmental Policy Act.
After the Navy's sonar program was uncov-
ered, officials eventually agreed to write the
ment for the program. Both the draft and fi-
legally required environmental impact state-
nal environmental reviews were widely criti-
cized in the scientific and environmental
many aspects, scientifically unsound.
communities as being inadequate and, in
Some have argued that the Navy again vio-
lated federal law by failing to take a hard
look at the potential effects of low-frequency
as the law requires, "both informed decision-
sonar on fish species. Rather then fostering,
making and informed public participation,'
the Navy chose to suppress or ignore crucial
scientific information that contradicted its
claim that sonar's impacts on fish would be
minimal.
The fact that the Navy also chose not to
NW
Maine
IN
NE
Compass
Russell Wray
SW
SE
seek authorization for a number of exercises
conducted under their Littoral Warfare Ad-
vanced Development program speaks vol-
umes. Most of those exercises involved the
use of high-intensity sonars, such as the sys-
tem that caused the mass stranding and
deaths of whales and dolphins in March 2000.
This exercise may have killed off an entire
population of beaked whales in the Bahamas.
But we only have to look as far as the Gulf
of Maine to see another example of Navy dis-
regard for the law. Live bombing exercises
continue in violation of the law. These exer-
cises and similar ones off the Florida-Geor-
gia coast have been linked with a number of
right whale deaths. Perhaps they will be the
extinction.
event that sends the right whale forever into
One thing is sure. The exemptions granted
to the military by an eager-to-please Con-
gress will bring about an expansion of the
Navy's use of their high-intensity sonars and
further destruction of not only marine mam-
mals but probably fish and other marine life
as well. That this may have serious implica-
industry is obvious.
tions for Maine's already beleaguered fishing
The fact that Maine's congressional dele-
gation voted for this bill is a real shame.
While they all said they opposed the exemp-
tions, in the end, none of them would stand
up and do the right thing by refusing to vote
for them. As a member of the conference
The fact that Maine's
congressional delegation
voted for this bill is a real
shame. While they all said.
they opposed the exemp-
tions, in the end, none of
them would stand up and
do the right thing by refus-
ing to vote for them.
committee that decided what made it into
the final version of the bill, Sen. Susan
Collins had the additional opportunity to op-
pose the exemptions by not signing on to the
final conference report. That could have
made a big difference. She did not take that
opportunity. The exemptions made it into the
bill, and Maine's congressional delegation
voted for it. While they have claimed that
other aspects of the bill necessitated their
voting for the bill, those claims don't ring
true.
Had they refused to vote for any bill con-
taining the exemptions, they could have sent
a strong message that the health of our
oceans and the life within is not expendable
and cannot be considered collateral damage:
But they didn't stand strong. Now, unlimited
numbers of marine mammals, perhaps en-
tire species, will pay for it - as may fish and
other marine life. In the end, so will we all.
Russell Wray of Sullivan works with Citizens Op-
posing Active Sonar Threats.

[PAGE BREAK]

Maine Sunday Telegram, Sunday 120Oct 2003 page 2 Cl 3-6
Jobs, Caucation and mastu
[AD] worked to fend off loan proposals. Armed Services 488-1119 or at bjansen@pressherald.com.
EARTHWEEK: A DIARY OF THE PLANET
Sunspot Decline
Astrophysicists from the
British Antarctic Survey
reported that sunspot activity
appears to be ebbing after a century of
high activity-a development that may
ease global warming. Lead researcher
Mark Clilverd wrote in the journal
Astronomy & Geophysics that solar
contribution to the warming climate has
been between 4 and 20 percent, leaving
greenhouse gases as the primary cause.
Clilverd's team predicts that solar activ-
ity is about to peak, then decline by two-
thirds during the next century. Their
assumption is that the solar heat output
will also decline slightly.
Alpine Meltdown
Last summer's record heat has
caused an alarming meltdown
of Austria's biggest glacier,
the "Pasterze." Environmentalists and
scientists are concerned at the loss of
nearly 100 feet in length and 21 feet in
depth of the glacier at the foot of Gross-
glockner, Austria's tallest mountain.
Glaciologist Gerhard Lieb of Graz Uni-
versity's Institute of Geography, told
reporters, "This loss of mass is unprece-
dented in past decades." Greenpeace
scientists warned the loss of the water-
holding glacier could result in more fre-
quent flooding disasters and mudslides.
South Seas Drought
A worsening drought in the
South Pacific nation of Fiji
ple to lose water supplies, with large
has caused thousands of peo-
parts of the capital of Suva now receiv-
ing water by truck. Works Minister
Savenaca Draunidalo said the national
disaster was causing more than 50,000
of the country's 840,000 people to suf-
fer. Accompanying extreme heat is also
resulting in sugarcane fires and a sharp
drop in cane production. Fiji's wettest
island, Taveuni, is reported to be run-
ning out of water, while the main island
of Vanua Levu may lose 80 percent of
its power if the main hydroelectric sta-
tion is forced to shut down because of
low water levels.
4.2
3.6
Nora
4.3
Larry
Olaf
For the week ending
October 10, 2003
Malay Flood Disaster
---
Disastrous flooding in north-
ern Malaysia forced 27,000
people into emergency shelters
and crippled the region's economy.
Penang, a high-tech industrial area that
houses top U.S. and Japanese electronics
giants like Motorola and Hitachi, is
among the worst-hit states. The country's
main rice-producing region is also
severely affected. At least four deaths
have been blamed on inundations that
followed days of nearly continuous rain-
fall. Malaysia's meteorological center
warned that further rains could force
more people from their homes.
Earthquakes
Strong aftershocks of Japan's
powerful Sept. 27 temblor
continued to rock the island of
Hokkaido. No additional damage was
reported from the ongoing tremors.
•Earth movements were also felt in
Taiwan, southern Iran, eastern Roma-
nia, the Alaska Peninsula and two points
near the California-Mexico border.
Kate
4,4
-88"
South Pole,
Antarctica
Wildfire Exodus
3.9
By Steve Newman
+110°
4.6
Dongola,
Sudan
Wildfires raging across one of
Zimbabwe's prime national
parks sent wild animals flee-
ing into unprotected areas and black-
ened thousands of acres in the U.N.-des-
ignated World Heritage Site. It was the
second time in three years that fires have
damaged the Matopos National Park,
home to white rhinos and antelope.
Officials from the National Parks and
Wildlife Authority said the blazes had
burned dry grass, trees and shrubs and
forced many animals to escape.
Tropical Cyclones
ical Storm Larry swamped a
Torrential rainfall from Trop-
vast stretch of southern Mex-
ico, forcing many coastal residents from
their homes. Tropical Storms Olaf and
Nora drenched parts of the country's
Pacific coast.
• Southern Newfoundland received
heavy rain and high surf as Hurricane
Kate passed well offshore, threatening
shipping lanes in the North Atlantic.
Sonar Victims
Sonar experiments by the U.S.
military may be causing
whales and dolphins to suffer
fatal attacks of the "bends," according
to a study by British scientists published
in the journal Nature. The team, lead by
Paul Jepson of the Zoological Society of
London, said the sonar signals might
have caused changes in diving behavior,
leading the whales to accelerate their
normal ascent rates. Scientists who
examined the bodies of 10 stranded
beaked whales following a naval exer-
cise off the Canary Islands found signs
of gas bubble formation in blood vessels
and bleeding from vital organs. The
strandings began about four hours after
the onset of mid-frequency sonar activ-
ity. The Navy says it needs to deploy the
more-powerful "active sonar" to detect
new, super-quiet diesel submarine
engines being used by China, Iran and
North Korea.
Distributed by: Universal Press Syndicate
E-mail: feedback@carthweck.com
©2003 Earth Environment Service

[PAGE BREAK]

5 July 2006 Wed page 83 call
NATION/WORLD
Navy vs. environmentalists
HONOLULU (AP)-While the Navy was
staging war games and hunting down "ene-
my" submarines with sonar off the island
of Kauai two summers ago, more than 150
lost and disoriented whales were swim-
ming chaotically in the shallows of
Hanalei Bay.
That mass stranding was a scene nei-
ther the Navy nor environmentalists want
to see repeated as 40 ships from eight coun-
tries return to the islands this month for
the world's largest international maritime
war games.
This week, environmentalists won a
temporary restraining order to stop the
Navy from using a high-intensity sonar
during this year's Rim of the Pacific 2006
exercise, which had scheduled sonar use to
start Thursday.
CONNECTICUT POST, Bridgeport,
CONN

[PAGE BREAK]

Whales versus war:
top court weighs in
Sound, for whales,
WASHINGTON (AP)
can mean life or death. The Supreme Court will
decide how much noise the Navy can make
around them.
Acting at the Bush administration's urging,
the court agreed Monday to review a federal ap-
peals court ruling that limited the use of sonar,
or sound waves, in naval training exercises off
Southern Califòrnia's coast because of the po-
tential harm to marine mammals.
Mid-frequency sonar, which the Navy relies
on to locate enemy submarines and is nearly
twice as loud as a jackhammer, can interfere
with the sound waves whales use to navigate
and communicate underwater. There is also evi-
dence that the extra noise has caused whales to
strand themselves on shore.
The Navy argues that the decision by the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco
jeopardizes its ability to train sailors and
Marines for service in wartime in exchange for
a limited environmental benefit.
24 June 2008 TUESDAY
CONNECTICUT POSTOP3
Bridgeport, Carnave 2
PD3

[PAGE BREAK]

Pentagon OKs Navy
sonar use in Rimpac
Marine mammal
advocates call
move 'reckless'
BY JAN TenBRUGGENCATE
Advertiser Science Writer
The Pentagon has exempted
the Navy from complying with
the Marine Mammal Protection
Act when using mid-frequency
other upcoming military exer-
active sonar during Rimpac and
cises.
The exemption, issued yes-
terday, was in reaction to a law-
suit filed this week that tried to
stop sonar use in Rimpac, which
is under way in waters around
Hawai'i. The suit contended that
sonar threatens whales and oth-
er marine mammals.
Yesterday's decision angered
environmental and marine con-
servation organizations.
"I think that the Navy is being
reckless in simply plunging
ahead without adopting better
mitigation measures," said Paul
Achitoff, an attorney with Earth-
justice in Honolulu. "I think it's
Increasingly evident that there's
the potential of real harm from
what they're doing."
The Natural Resources De-
fense Council, which filed the
suit that prompted the Depart-
ment of Defense action, had
even harsher criticism.
"This is an historic and un-
precedented retreat by the U.S.
Navy from our national com-
mitment to protect whales, dol-
phins and other marine life,"
said council attorney Joel
Reynolds. "It's not that the Navy
can't comply with the law; it's
SEE SONAR, A11
July 2006 Sat pagel/l2.
The Honduly Adventis er, savair

[PAGE BREAK]

• The Honolulu Advertiser, Cottanari 1 July 2006
Saturday page Allical1-3
Sonar
CONTINUED FROM A1
that the Navy chooses not to."
The Navy said sonar is a key
technology in locating enemy
submarines and that there are
more than 140 super-quiet diesel-
electric submarines operating in
the Pacific.
"Hawaiian waters offer Rim-
pac participants the opportunity
to realistically and effectively
train in a number of maritime
disciplines and exercises essen-
tial to maintaining an edge over
increasingly stealthy sub-
marines," said Rear Adm. Gary A.
Engle, director of environmen-
tal programs for the U.S. Pacific
Fleet.
In a news release, the Depart-
ment of Defense said the ex-
emption means the Navy for the
next six months will not need
permits for activities that may
harm marine mammals but
that the Navy will work with the
National Oceanic & Atmospher-
ic Administration on its envi-
ronmental program.
The exemption covers a dozen
training activities in two oceans
over the next six months. The
Navy must still comply with the
National Environmental Policy
Act, Endangered Species Act and
other conservation legislation.
Congress granted the Depart-
ment of Defense the authority to
exempt military forces from en-
vironmental laws under the 2004
National Defense Authorization
Act.
"The Navy will continue to
employ stringent mitigation
measures to protect marine
mammals during all sonar activ-
ities, to include habitat controls,
safety zones around ships,
trained lookouts, extra precau-
tions during chokepoint exercis-
es, in coordination with the Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service,"
said the Navy director of envi-
ronmental readiness, Rear Adm.
James Symonds.
A chokepoint is a narrow chan-
nel, often shallower than sur-
rounding ocean. There has been
an indication that marine mam-
mals may be more severely af-
fected by sonar in these areas.
This year's Rimpac exercises
take place two years after the
July 3, 2004, event in which 200
deep-ocean melon-headed whales
crowded into the shallows of
Hanalei Bay on Kaua'i's north-fac-
ing coastline, behaving in what a
marine mammal veterinarian said
was an anxious manner.
Residents on canoes and
kayaks wove a hukilau cable of
beach vines and dragged it
through the ocean to coax the
whales back into deeper water.
On July 5, a dead newborn mel-
on-head washed ashore nearby.
on-headed whale activities.
"Our concern all along with
the Navy has been its repeated
denial that sonar has an impact,"
said Sierra Club Hawai'i chapter
head Jeff Mikulina. "Whales and
dolphins continue to beach them-
selves, and the Navy is not will-
ing to acknowledge that there is
a clear impact."
The Navy has worked with the
National Oceanic & Atmospher-
ic Administration to develop
standards for the use of sonar
during Rimpac, and NOAA this
week had issued it a permit to
proceed with its exercises under
certain restrictions. Those in-
clude reducing sonar power if
marine mammals are spotted and
reducing it further if they move
closer to the ships.
"The Navy and NOAA have
worked hard these past several
months to take the appropriate
measures necessary to avoid
harming marine life while also
ensuring the realism of this vital
multinational naval exercise,"
Symonds said.
Marjorie Ziegler, executive di-
rector of the Conservation Coun-
cil for Hawai'i, said there was in-
dication the Navy could have
worked out a way to use its sonar
in a way that it would not have
been dangerous to marine mam-
mals, but chose to exempt itself
instead.
The Navy acknowledged us-
ing sonar in Kaua'i waters during
that time, and when NOAA Fish-
eries released its report on the
near-stranding, NOAA Fisheries
acoustics program director Bran-
don Southall said of Navy sonar
responsibility for the event: "It's
plausible and likely, if not prob-
able." The Navy has continued to Reach Jan TenBruggencate at
deny any conclusive link be- jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or
[AD] tween its sonar use and the mel- (808) 245-3074.
"I think this is unfortunate.
They can train and protect ma-
rine mammals. I think this is re-
ally bad precedent," Ziegler said.

[PAGE BREAK]

Navy serious about environmental responsibility
After reading the "Maine Compass"
Opinion-Editorial (Nov. 17th) from Rus-
sell Wray of Sullivan, I view with gen-
uine concern its content, credibility and
correctness.
Recent legislation passed by Con-
gress does not, as Mr. Wray asserts, ex-
empt the military from the Endangered
Species Act and Marine Mammal Pro-
tection Act. Congress granted the mili-
tary targeted legislative clarification
where laws were being applied beyond
their original intent. The changes were
not the broad exemptions from environ-
mental laws that Mr. Wray and others
contend. The changes address specific
issues designed to better balance two
Simportant national interests-national
security and environmental protection.
The Navy takes its environmental re-
sponsibilities seriously, and will contin-
ue to do so. This commitment is evident
in the Navy's $724 million environmen-
tal protection budget, which includes a
"substantial financial outlay for research
W
SW
Maine
NE
Compass
W.M. O'Connell
into marine mammals. In fact, the Navy
funds about 70 percent of all research
on the effects of human-generated noise
on marine mammals.
The Navy has adopted extensive pro-
cedures and mitigation measures de-
signed to minimize effects of training on
marine mammals. These procedures in-
clude the use of buffer zones, visual
monitoring, and in some instances pas-
sive acoustic monitoring, and in other
instances active measures to detect the
presence of marine mammals. The
Navy delays, stops or moves exercises
when marine mammals are within cer-
tain distance parameters. Additionally,
Endangered Species Act consultations
are ongoing, with the National Marine
Fisheries Service, to ensure that Navy
activities in the Gulf of Maine have no
adverse affect on protected species.
Commander, Patrol and Reconnais-
sance Wing Five, based at NAS
Brunswick, has been actively engaged
for over three years in cooperation and
consultations with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and
the National Marine Fisheries Service
to ensure that marine mammal protec-
tive measures are in place for Wing
training activities. They have a perma-
nently assigned "marine mammal miti-
gation officer," a Navy commander and
aviator, who has participated in several
annual regional New England multi-
agency whale conferences. Of note, this
officer will be attending next month's
Endangered Species Act Conference at
Woods Hole, Mass.
The National Marine Fisheries Ser-
vice asks ships and fishermen to volun-
The Navy has
adopted extensive
procedures and
mitigation measures
designed to minimize
effects of training on
marine mammals.
were designed and implemented with
the utmost regard for good environmen-
tal stewardship. Naval Aircraft are re-
quired to perform specific and exten-
sive clearing procedures prior to drop-
ping any weapons. Non-acoustic
(acoustic when available) and visual
cueing sources are used to maximum
effectiveness to ensure the safest possi-
ble environment when conducting any
P-3 operations. Additionally, in the past
twenty-plus years there is no evidential
linkage to P-3 "Orion" operations and
whale deaths.
The Navy must conduct quality train-
ing to ensure it is prepared to success-
tarily comply with restrictions within
dynamic area management and season-
al area management zones. The Navy
adheres to a higher/stricter standard
than fisheries service requires by de-
claring these zones as off limits for
naval aircraft conducting any subse-
quent military training. The Navy's Ma-
rine Mammal Mitigation Procedures Wing Five based in Brunswick.
fully accomplish its mission - the de-
fense of our nation. It will continue to do
so, while also preserving its outstanding
record of positive environmental stew-
ardship.
W. M. O'Connell is chief staff officer of the
Navy's Officer Patrol & Reconnaissance
25 NOVEMBER 2003 TUESDAY getcall-5 Kennebec Journal, Agusta, Maine