Was the response from SA lab or US one? I don't recall from the script that the DNA was sent to 2 labs; thought it was just SA one, but I can't be sure w/o re-watching
"When
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA, pronounced
"Noah") team captured a DNA sample of a creature and sent it to labs in
the United States and South Africa. Eventually, South Africa
responded, but the DNA was so close to human DNA, the lab claimed that
the sample had been contaminated with human DNA and was thrown out.
I don't know about you, but consider me a believer, and bet your bottom
dollar I will think twice before jumping into deep water.
******
A team of scientists testifies that they found the remains of a sea
creature with ties to human origins - a modern day mermaid. They claim a
massive government cover-up is currenly hiding the creature's existence
from the general public."That's what it said on the website...."
http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/are-mermaids-real-never-seen-video-body-found-beach-2935928.html
Monday, September 16, 2013
Mermaids File: Review of re-release of Body Found
Published On: Tue, Jul 17th, 2012
Researcher Reports / Science / U.S. | By Charles Wuckland
“Mermaids: The Body Found” Continues to Puzzle if Mermaids Do Exist (Photo and Video)
The
documentary “Mermaids: The Body Found” was re-aired on Discovery
Channel last Sunday, July 15, 2012, confusing more people if mermaids
indeed really exist.
In describing the show, Discovery says, “What if there’s a kernel of truth behind the legend of this mythic creature? Is the idea of mermaids really so far-fetched? Maybe so, maybe not. The show itself, though science fiction, is based on some real events and scientific theory.”
In the program, two former National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists, after investigating mass stranding of whales in 2007, claimed to have recorded mysterious underwater noises coming from an unknown source. This sound resembled a sound previously recorded in 1997, called the “bloop”.
Mermaids The Body Found
In studying “bloop”, they recognized the sound of another animal mixed in with the sounds of the whales and dolphins. After more closely inspecting it, they discovered that an unknown creature was communicating with them.
Mermaid Body Found on South Africa Shore
Later on, there was another mass beaching in South Africa. The researchers in South Africa had recorded similar sounds on their own devices. The team traveled there to investigate.
They then recovered 30% of the remains of this unknown creature from inside a great white shark stomach which was said to possess attributes of the human body. They alleged that the marine creature had hands, not fins, and the hip structure of an upright animal. These findings, along with many others led the team to determine that this unknown animal was very closely related to humans — a mermaid.
Unfortunately, the US government confiscated the remains and their research as the team was about to return to the United States. The only thing that they had left was the bloop. The team tracked down one of two boys that had reportedly seen a mermaid body on the beach the morning of the first mass whale beaching. He said that he captured the mermaid on his camera phone.
Researcher Reports / Science / U.S. | By Charles Wuckland
“Mermaids: The Body Found” Continues to Puzzle if Mermaids Do Exist (Photo and Video)
In describing the show, Discovery says, “What if there’s a kernel of truth behind the legend of this mythic creature? Is the idea of mermaids really so far-fetched? Maybe so, maybe not. The show itself, though science fiction, is based on some real events and scientific theory.”
In the program, two former National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists, after investigating mass stranding of whales in 2007, claimed to have recorded mysterious underwater noises coming from an unknown source. This sound resembled a sound previously recorded in 1997, called the “bloop”.
Mermaids The Body Found
In studying “bloop”, they recognized the sound of another animal mixed in with the sounds of the whales and dolphins. After more closely inspecting it, they discovered that an unknown creature was communicating with them.
Mermaid Body Found on South Africa Shore
Later on, there was another mass beaching in South Africa. The researchers in South Africa had recorded similar sounds on their own devices. The team traveled there to investigate.
They then recovered 30% of the remains of this unknown creature from inside a great white shark stomach which was said to possess attributes of the human body. They alleged that the marine creature had hands, not fins, and the hip structure of an upright animal. These findings, along with many others led the team to determine that this unknown animal was very closely related to humans — a mermaid.
Unfortunately, the US government confiscated the remains and their research as the team was about to return to the United States. The only thing that they had left was the bloop. The team tracked down one of two boys that had reportedly seen a mermaid body on the beach the morning of the first mass whale beaching. He said that he captured the mermaid on his camera phone.
Mermaid File: Charley Foley's interview NY Post May 2012
http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/tvblog/mermaids_the_body_found_fVs2UMTFdyONFD0Zfk8EiL
By DEBBIE LITTLE
Posted: 5:29 PM, May 25, 2012 It took five years to give birth to a mermaid.
Charlie Foley, Animal Planet’s senior vice president of development, took half a decade creating, developing, writing and executive producing “Mermaids: The Body Found”, a two-hour special that combines cutting edge Computer-Generated Imagery with real events.
Q: You probably could have cranked it out in about a year, but you didn’t do that?
A: Actually, you’re right, that’s about the timeline for a standard cg film. It’s funny, one of the fellas that worked with me on the film said, ‘My God, Charlie, you’ve had Mermaids longer than you’ve had your kids.’
Q: Watching this film it made me think of Area 51 and aliens. How did you get this idea?
A: It began a few years ago. I wrote and executive produced a two-hour film for Animal Planet on dragons. Imagining dragons as real animals. Using real science to imagine them. It did really well so we wanted to do another one.
And I got thinking about mermaids and the question whether they could be real. And if you look, every seafaring culture on Earth has a mermaid legend, including cultures that never had contact with one another. They all have the same stories. They all depict the creatures similarly. That’s intriguing. Could this have evolved and how would it have happened? And that’s sort of the leading question.
In the theory of human evolution there’s this pretty radical theory called the aquatic ape theory.
The fact is there are animals that have moved from the land into the sea. Could it have happened to humans? And with aquatic ape theory, if there’s anything to it, what is the logical extension of it if we continued going in that direction. The idea is that people pulled back and we stopped evolving into a marine animal, into an aquatic animal. But what if we kept going? And that to me, knowing that it’s happened before knowing that it’s real science with other animals. Could it have happened with one branch of the human family tree?
Could there actually be a scientific grounding to this legend?
I don’t think there are a lot of stories, not to my knowledge anyway, that imagine where they came from and how they would have come into being. And what their natural history would be like and I don’t think there’s another imagination of them as a member of the human family tree.
Q: People are going to think [the actors in this story] are real and that this really happened. So is this based on something? Are there really any photos?
A: Look at the deep oceans, the fact is the surface of the moon has been explored more than our oceans.
And in the past 10 years, there’s mention made of this in the film and it’s true, there’s been two new species of whale found. The largest species on Earth brand new to science identified for the first time and that’s the last decade plus. So there is still a real question as to what else is out there because we’re still finding things.
Mermaid sightings continue to this day. For example, in Israel there’s a town [Kiryat Yam] and they have a standing bounty of I think a million dollars for evidence of a mermaid. People in the town have reported seeing [them], this is entirely true by the way, they’ve reported seeing them for the past 10 years.
So the idea that it is possible, that evolutionarily, scientifically, it is plausible. Humans are fascinated by the idea that there could be a kernel of truth in a legend and the story design here is to look at that and imagine that and imagine in a way where how would this really have happened.
Q: Do you think it would be fair to call this a work of fiction based on fact?
A: Maybe that’s a good consideration. It is certainly using real science to inform, to ground the story and as a springboard into imagination and into the story. Certainly it’s girded by a lot of fact and the story does intersect with real-world phenomena, real-world events, real science.
Q: Have you seen the Harry Potter movies? Do you realize your mermaids look a little like the merpeople from the Black Lake?
A: Those mermaids still have hair, which would be one of the first things to go if you really were evolving to a marine animal. It’s one of the reasons in the aquatic ape theory that accounts for why we’re relatively hairless compared to other primates.
[Our mermaid’s] tail is paddle shaped, it’s not horizontal like a shark’s tail like in the Harry Potter films. It’s more paddle shaped because that would be how the foot bones would have radiated out. We spent a lot of time scientifically imagining how the creatures would look and even their color, for instance. These don’t look like what you expect mermaids to look like. They’re blue on the back and they have pale bellies, that’s something called counter shading. A lot of marine animals have it, whales, a great white shark has it very dramatically. It’s a form of camouflage.
Q: What do you want people to take away from watching this?
A: [I’d like them to] wonder about what else is out there. What is possible? If this were real how would it have come into being. Here’s one of our oldest myths, I hope, imagined in a way that hasn't been done before and as a member of our own family tree. And is that possible and is that done more compellingly and credibly because it’s drawing upon real-world phenomena, real science. First and foremost, I want to entertain people. And I do hope they wonder at it and have moments of wonder.
Q: When I first watched it I wondered what’s the Navy doing and I Googled the mass whale beachings. It all seemed very real.
A: Hopefully, it feels real because it’s inspired by real events. The Navy really has beached whales testing sonar. There was, in fact, a beaching in Washington State. NOAA is the agency that investigates this. I hope that specificity is what makes good storytelling and makes it very credible.
Q: Do you think it will make people question?
A: People love story and people love imagination and myth and legend but people also love realism and truth being stranger than fiction.
Q: I don’t know if you’ve ever read Dan Brown’s books [The Da Vinci Code], in a way it kind of made me think of that. Maybe these things could have happened? How much is real?
A: This goes to your Area 51 analogy and you’re dead right, because that was absolutely one of the touchstones I was thinking about when I started this.
The government and the military industrial complex is a very sort of cliché and easy villain. What does Big Brother know, what’s being hidden from us? Now this case draws a little more realism because the Navy really has done this and for a long time they tried to cover it up. That’s kind of like Area 51 suddenly you do start to ask questions because there has been some weird behavior.
Q: The bloop is real, the mass whale beachings are real. It really makes you think what else is really going on?
A: Even at the end of the film with dolphins cooperatively hunting with fisherman. That is also real and scientists have no idea where it came from. It’s one of the inexplicable partnerships on earth, the origins of it. How on earth did that get started?
Q: I had not heard about the aquatic ape theory before, but like with the Dan Brown comparison, you may be putting out a hypothesis on something but there’s a reality base behind it.
A: You know we’re all fascinated by our own origins and I think [the aquatic ape theory] is a particularly fascinating theory because it accounts for the differences between humans and other primates.
To begin with we can consciously hold our breath longer than any other terrestrial animal by a country mile. Human babies instinctively hold their breath in the dive reflex.
Then we have an inflating fat layer. The only other animals that have the kind of fat layer that we do, all over the body, are exclusively marine mammals.
And we’re hairless and hair creates drag in water.
So this film should get people thinking and talking. Is that what you want?
A: [I hope] that it entertains as well as engages people and makes people wonder.
By DEBBIE LITTLE
Posted: 5:29 PM, May 25, 2012 It took five years to give birth to a mermaid.
Charlie Foley, Animal Planet’s senior vice president of development, took half a decade creating, developing, writing and executive producing “Mermaids: The Body Found”, a two-hour special that combines cutting edge Computer-Generated Imagery with real events.
Q: You probably could have cranked it out in about a year, but you didn’t do that?
A: Actually, you’re right, that’s about the timeline for a standard cg film. It’s funny, one of the fellas that worked with me on the film said, ‘My God, Charlie, you’ve had Mermaids longer than you’ve had your kids.’
Q: Watching this film it made me think of Area 51 and aliens. How did you get this idea?
A: It began a few years ago. I wrote and executive produced a two-hour film for Animal Planet on dragons. Imagining dragons as real animals. Using real science to imagine them. It did really well so we wanted to do another one.
And I got thinking about mermaids and the question whether they could be real. And if you look, every seafaring culture on Earth has a mermaid legend, including cultures that never had contact with one another. They all have the same stories. They all depict the creatures similarly. That’s intriguing. Could this have evolved and how would it have happened? And that’s sort of the leading question.
In the theory of human evolution there’s this pretty radical theory called the aquatic ape theory.
The fact is there are animals that have moved from the land into the sea. Could it have happened to humans? And with aquatic ape theory, if there’s anything to it, what is the logical extension of it if we continued going in that direction. The idea is that people pulled back and we stopped evolving into a marine animal, into an aquatic animal. But what if we kept going? And that to me, knowing that it’s happened before knowing that it’s real science with other animals. Could it have happened with one branch of the human family tree?
Could there actually be a scientific grounding to this legend?
I don’t think there are a lot of stories, not to my knowledge anyway, that imagine where they came from and how they would have come into being. And what their natural history would be like and I don’t think there’s another imagination of them as a member of the human family tree.
Q: People are going to think [the actors in this story] are real and that this really happened. So is this based on something? Are there really any photos?
A: Look at the deep oceans, the fact is the surface of the moon has been explored more than our oceans.
And in the past 10 years, there’s mention made of this in the film and it’s true, there’s been two new species of whale found. The largest species on Earth brand new to science identified for the first time and that’s the last decade plus. So there is still a real question as to what else is out there because we’re still finding things.
Mermaid sightings continue to this day. For example, in Israel there’s a town [Kiryat Yam] and they have a standing bounty of I think a million dollars for evidence of a mermaid. People in the town have reported seeing [them], this is entirely true by the way, they’ve reported seeing them for the past 10 years.
So the idea that it is possible, that evolutionarily, scientifically, it is plausible. Humans are fascinated by the idea that there could be a kernel of truth in a legend and the story design here is to look at that and imagine that and imagine in a way where how would this really have happened.
Q: Do you think it would be fair to call this a work of fiction based on fact?
A: Maybe that’s a good consideration. It is certainly using real science to inform, to ground the story and as a springboard into imagination and into the story. Certainly it’s girded by a lot of fact and the story does intersect with real-world phenomena, real-world events, real science.
Q: Have you seen the Harry Potter movies? Do you realize your mermaids look a little like the merpeople from the Black Lake?
A: Those mermaids still have hair, which would be one of the first things to go if you really were evolving to a marine animal. It’s one of the reasons in the aquatic ape theory that accounts for why we’re relatively hairless compared to other primates.
[Our mermaid’s] tail is paddle shaped, it’s not horizontal like a shark’s tail like in the Harry Potter films. It’s more paddle shaped because that would be how the foot bones would have radiated out. We spent a lot of time scientifically imagining how the creatures would look and even their color, for instance. These don’t look like what you expect mermaids to look like. They’re blue on the back and they have pale bellies, that’s something called counter shading. A lot of marine animals have it, whales, a great white shark has it very dramatically. It’s a form of camouflage.
Q: What do you want people to take away from watching this?
A: [I’d like them to] wonder about what else is out there. What is possible? If this were real how would it have come into being. Here’s one of our oldest myths, I hope, imagined in a way that hasn't been done before and as a member of our own family tree. And is that possible and is that done more compellingly and credibly because it’s drawing upon real-world phenomena, real science. First and foremost, I want to entertain people. And I do hope they wonder at it and have moments of wonder.
Q: When I first watched it I wondered what’s the Navy doing and I Googled the mass whale beachings. It all seemed very real.
A: Hopefully, it feels real because it’s inspired by real events. The Navy really has beached whales testing sonar. There was, in fact, a beaching in Washington State. NOAA is the agency that investigates this. I hope that specificity is what makes good storytelling and makes it very credible.
Q: Do you think it will make people question?
A: People love story and people love imagination and myth and legend but people also love realism and truth being stranger than fiction.
Q: I don’t know if you’ve ever read Dan Brown’s books [The Da Vinci Code], in a way it kind of made me think of that. Maybe these things could have happened? How much is real?
A: This goes to your Area 51 analogy and you’re dead right, because that was absolutely one of the touchstones I was thinking about when I started this.
The government and the military industrial complex is a very sort of cliché and easy villain. What does Big Brother know, what’s being hidden from us? Now this case draws a little more realism because the Navy really has done this and for a long time they tried to cover it up. That’s kind of like Area 51 suddenly you do start to ask questions because there has been some weird behavior.
Q: The bloop is real, the mass whale beachings are real. It really makes you think what else is really going on?
A: Even at the end of the film with dolphins cooperatively hunting with fisherman. That is also real and scientists have no idea where it came from. It’s one of the inexplicable partnerships on earth, the origins of it. How on earth did that get started?
Q: I had not heard about the aquatic ape theory before, but like with the Dan Brown comparison, you may be putting out a hypothesis on something but there’s a reality base behind it.
A: You know we’re all fascinated by our own origins and I think [the aquatic ape theory] is a particularly fascinating theory because it accounts for the differences between humans and other primates.
To begin with we can consciously hold our breath longer than any other terrestrial animal by a country mile. Human babies instinctively hold their breath in the dive reflex.
Then we have an inflating fat layer. The only other animals that have the kind of fat layer that we do, all over the body, are exclusively marine mammals.
And we’re hairless and hair creates drag in water.
So this film should get people thinking and talking. Is that what you want?
A: [I hope] that it entertains as well as engages people and makes people wonder.
Mermaid File: 2004 mass whale beaching?
From a message board discussion of Animal Planet's Mermaids:
"The mass whale beaching that supposedly happened in April of 2004 in Washington state doesn't seem to have occurred, though there was one later that year.
Sadly, the Navy does underwater explosion and sonar stuff that does indeed mess up cetacean sonar navigation, possibly leading to these beachings.* It's really too bad that the one true part of this thing is also the saddest."
"The mass whale beaching that supposedly happened in April of 2004 in Washington state doesn't seem to have occurred, though there was one later that year.
Sadly, the Navy does underwater explosion and sonar stuff that does indeed mess up cetacean sonar navigation, possibly leading to these beachings.* It's really too bad that the one true part of this thing is also the saddest."
Mermaid File: Navy's Use of New Sonar Suspected in Mass Killings of Whales
http://www.weboflove.org/050219whalessonarkillings
Navy's Use of New Sonar Suspected in Mass Killings of Whales - Washington Post
In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s, whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar was the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging, which is consistent with injury from sound.
-- San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/04, front page
Feb. 19, 2005
Dear friends,
The navy has been developing and testing new very low frequency sonar equipment for several years now. For those who are following this, it is clear that this technology seriously damages whales and dolphins. Their dead corpses have been found with blood in their ears after tests in numerous places around the globe. The press has sadly given this very little coverage. Thankfully, the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle (front page) have had articles about this.
Below are excerpts from these two articles with links for those who would like to read the entire article. You can help by signing the petition at the bottom of this email and by contacting your congressional representatives and asking them to stop the use of this damaging technology. Also please spread this important news to your friends.
With love and best wishes,
Fred Burks
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/01/navys_use_of_sonar_suspected_in_near_stranding_of_whales?mode=PF
Navy's use of sonar suspected in near-stranding of whales
Hawaii incident intensifies debate on ocean noise
Navy officials said that a review of the July 3 incident indicates that two ships turned on their sonar between 6:45 and 7:10 a.m., by most accounts just before the unusual movement of almost 200 deep-water whales to the shoreline of a Kauai bay. The Navy had said earlier that no sonar was used until more than 90 minutes later, well after the animals came ashore.
Lieutenant Commander Greg Geisen, the Navy spokesman responsible for information about the maneuver, said a Navy review of the incident still concluded that the ships were either too far from the whales or were using the sonar at the wrong time to cause the mass movement.
"There is no evidence of a relationship here between the sonar use and the whale behavior," he said.
But the newly released information from Geisen and other Navy officials -- that the ships were testing their sonar in preparation for the maneuver on the day before the whales came ashore, and early on the morning of the near-stranding -- has caused some observers to question that conclusion.
"Every time the Navy changes its story, it reduces its credibility on this issue," said Cara Horowitz, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Navy over a related sonar issue. "The Navy would be better off spending more time developing common-sense ways to protect whales from sonar and less time denying a connection that is unfortunately being repeatedly shown."
Residents and government officials worked throughout July 3 to steer the whales back to open water, and all made it except one newborn calf that died of starvation.
The Hawaii incident is the third significant one involving sonar and marine mammal strandings near the United States since 2000. The stranding of 17 whales of various kinds off the Bahamas in 2000, which resulted in the death of at least six of them, occurred during a major Navy maneuver. Navy officials at first said there was no connection between their exercise and the stranding, but later acknowledged that the loud sound from the sonar had caused the animals to flee ashore.
Another incident occurred off the coast of Washington state last year, where harbor porpoises unexpectedly came ashore after a sonar exercise. The Navy concluded that there was no connection between the two, but the NOAA is still reviewing the incident.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/13/MNGOEAB3HJ1.DTL
Navy under global pressure to limit sonar use
EU, others call for cut in noises that harm sea life
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer The United States is facing increasing international pressure to place limitations on the use of military sonar, the underwater equivalent of radar that has been linked to mass strandings of whales. The European Union Parliament -- the most prominent of four international bodies that have taken up the matter in recent months -- called in October for its member states to develop a moratorium on all types of military sonars, which use powerful sound to locate objects such as submarines. Two weeks ago, the IUCN-World Conservation Union, a prestigious group of 70 nations and 400 nongovernmental organizations meeting in Bangkok, overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world's oceans, including military sonar, oil and gas exploration and commercial shipping, until the effects are better understood. The United States abstained from the vote. The measure also said that, to the extent possible, sonar and other activities should be avoided entirely in areas where the vulnerable species live. According to studies cited by the EU and the other world bodies, noise can interfere with the survival of the ocean creatures that depend on sound to navigate, find food, locate mates, avoid predators and communicate with one another. At high decibel levels, noise can kill. The U.S. Navy is the biggest user of midfrequency active sonar in the world -- and government officials have been loath to require permits to regulate its use. "We're not ignoring it by any means," said Bill Hogarth, director of the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "But to translate to direct mortality is very difficult.'' Hogarth said that calling for a ban or restrictions on naval sonar is "too simple,'' because the effects of sonar depend on ocean conditions. In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s, however, whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar -- by far the most commonly used type of sonar -- was the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging, which is consistent with injury from sound. Kenneth Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash., and leader of the Bahamas Marine Mammal Survey, concluded that a vibration in the whales' cranial air spaces tore delicate tissues around the brain and ears. Military active sonars emit sound waves -- blasted from loud speakers - - that scan hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean waters the way a spotlight would search on land. The sound signal bounces off objects and sends back information to receivers. Some midfrequency active sonar systems can put out more than 235 decibels, as loud as a Saturn V rocket at launch. Aside from the U.S. use, the technology is also employed by Western European countries, Japan, Australia and, to a small extent, Canada. Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who first challenged the Navy's use of powerful underwater sounds a decade ago, says his group is considering filing a lawsuit that would charge the Navy with harassing and killing marine mammals in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Page A - 1You can help by signing the petition at http://www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.aspAnd for a short, inspiring presentation with beautiful nature photos, click on "View Presentation" at:
http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com
See our collection of cover-up news articles at http://www.WantToKnow.info/medianewsarticles
Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work.
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Navy's Use of New Sonar Suspected in Mass Killings of Whales - Washington Post
In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s, whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar was the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging, which is consistent with injury from sound.
-- San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/04, front page
Feb. 19, 2005
Dear friends,
The navy has been developing and testing new very low frequency sonar equipment for several years now. For those who are following this, it is clear that this technology seriously damages whales and dolphins. Their dead corpses have been found with blood in their ears after tests in numerous places around the globe. The press has sadly given this very little coverage. Thankfully, the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle (front page) have had articles about this.
Below are excerpts from these two articles with links for those who would like to read the entire article. You can help by signing the petition at the bottom of this email and by contacting your congressional representatives and asking them to stop the use of this damaging technology. Also please spread this important news to your friends.
With love and best wishes,
Fred Burks
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/01/navys_use_of_sonar_suspected_in_near_stranding_of_whales?mode=PF
Navy's use of sonar suspected in near-stranding of whales
Hawaii incident intensifies debate on ocean noise
By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post | September 1, 2004
The
Navy has acknowledged that vessels on maneuver off Hawaii in July used
their sonar periodically in the 20 hours before a large pod of
melon-headed whales unexpectedly came to shore in the area. The
acknowledgment added to an already contentious debate over whether the
sound from sonar has been causing marine mammals to strand.Navy officials said that a review of the July 3 incident indicates that two ships turned on their sonar between 6:45 and 7:10 a.m., by most accounts just before the unusual movement of almost 200 deep-water whales to the shoreline of a Kauai bay. The Navy had said earlier that no sonar was used until more than 90 minutes later, well after the animals came ashore.
Lieutenant Commander Greg Geisen, the Navy spokesman responsible for information about the maneuver, said a Navy review of the incident still concluded that the ships were either too far from the whales or were using the sonar at the wrong time to cause the mass movement.
"There is no evidence of a relationship here between the sonar use and the whale behavior," he said.
But the newly released information from Geisen and other Navy officials -- that the ships were testing their sonar in preparation for the maneuver on the day before the whales came ashore, and early on the morning of the near-stranding -- has caused some observers to question that conclusion.
"Every time the Navy changes its story, it reduces its credibility on this issue," said Cara Horowitz, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Navy over a related sonar issue. "The Navy would be better off spending more time developing common-sense ways to protect whales from sonar and less time denying a connection that is unfortunately being repeatedly shown."
Residents and government officials worked throughout July 3 to steer the whales back to open water, and all made it except one newborn calf that died of starvation.
The Hawaii incident is the third significant one involving sonar and marine mammal strandings near the United States since 2000. The stranding of 17 whales of various kinds off the Bahamas in 2000, which resulted in the death of at least six of them, occurred during a major Navy maneuver. Navy officials at first said there was no connection between their exercise and the stranding, but later acknowledged that the loud sound from the sonar had caused the animals to flee ashore.
Another incident occurred off the coast of Washington state last year, where harbor porpoises unexpectedly came ashore after a sonar exercise. The Navy concluded that there was no connection between the two, but the NOAA is still reviewing the incident.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/13/MNGOEAB3HJ1.DTL
Navy under global pressure to limit sonar use
EU, others call for cut in noises that harm sea life
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer The United States is facing increasing international pressure to place limitations on the use of military sonar, the underwater equivalent of radar that has been linked to mass strandings of whales. The European Union Parliament -- the most prominent of four international bodies that have taken up the matter in recent months -- called in October for its member states to develop a moratorium on all types of military sonars, which use powerful sound to locate objects such as submarines. Two weeks ago, the IUCN-World Conservation Union, a prestigious group of 70 nations and 400 nongovernmental organizations meeting in Bangkok, overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world's oceans, including military sonar, oil and gas exploration and commercial shipping, until the effects are better understood. The United States abstained from the vote. The measure also said that, to the extent possible, sonar and other activities should be avoided entirely in areas where the vulnerable species live. According to studies cited by the EU and the other world bodies, noise can interfere with the survival of the ocean creatures that depend on sound to navigate, find food, locate mates, avoid predators and communicate with one another. At high decibel levels, noise can kill. The U.S. Navy is the biggest user of midfrequency active sonar in the world -- and government officials have been loath to require permits to regulate its use. "We're not ignoring it by any means," said Bill Hogarth, director of the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "But to translate to direct mortality is very difficult.'' Hogarth said that calling for a ban or restrictions on naval sonar is "too simple,'' because the effects of sonar depend on ocean conditions. In more than a dozen instances dating back to the 1960s, however, whales have stranded themselves on the beaches and sometimes died at the time of naval training exercises miles away using midfrequency active sonar. An unprecedented stranding of 16 beaked and minke whales in the Bahamas in 2000 brought worldwide attention to military sonar. A NOAA investigation concluded that a Navy testing maneuver using midfrequency sonar -- by far the most commonly used type of sonar -- was the likely cause. Necropsies found signs of brain hemorrhaging, which is consistent with injury from sound. Kenneth Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Wash., and leader of the Bahamas Marine Mammal Survey, concluded that a vibration in the whales' cranial air spaces tore delicate tissues around the brain and ears. Military active sonars emit sound waves -- blasted from loud speakers - - that scan hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean waters the way a spotlight would search on land. The sound signal bounces off objects and sends back information to receivers. Some midfrequency active sonar systems can put out more than 235 decibels, as loud as a Saturn V rocket at launch. Aside from the U.S. use, the technology is also employed by Western European countries, Japan, Australia and, to a small extent, Canada. Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who first challenged the Navy's use of powerful underwater sounds a decade ago, says his group is considering filing a lawsuit that would charge the Navy with harassing and killing marine mammals in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Page A - 1You can help by signing the petition at http://www.savebiogems.org/whales/takeaction.aspAnd for a short, inspiring presentation with beautiful nature photos, click on "View Presentation" at:
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Saturday, November 17, 2012
The Northeast catches a break
From Accuweather today: "It no longer appears that a nor'easter will have an impact on the Northeast, while it is expected to shift out to sea early next week. Instead, dry weather is in store for the region into Thanksgiving week."
Sunday, January 29, 2012
England Riots: The Guardian's famous report on the police experience on the frontlines
Difficult to read, even this far removed from the riots. Very moving, very informative.
August 11, 2011: Police tell of life on the frontline during riots: fatigue and hunger under hail of missiles. Public support for officers on the frontline has helped keep up morale amid chaos, frustration and 20-hour shifts
August 11, 2011: Police tell of life on the frontline during riots: fatigue and hunger under hail of missiles. Public support for officers on the frontline has helped keep up morale amid chaos, frustration and 20-hour shifts
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