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HomeNewsArchivesSONAR TESTING HALT OFF NEW JERSEY HAILED HERE

SONAR TESTING HALT OFF NEW JERSEY HAILED HERE

Local marine scientists say they're glad the Navy announced the suspension of underwater sonar testing that was scheduled for this week off the New Jersey coast.
The second phase of testing what's called the Littoral Warfare Advanced Development (LWAD) system was called off last week after a meeting between officials of the Navy and of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, according to news reports.
The decision-makers were reportedly concerned that use of low-frequency active sonar could harm whales and other marine animals.
"It sounds like maybe now someone realizes there's a problem," said Rafe Boulon, chief of resource management for the Virgin Islands National Park.
Over the past year, concern for the impact of sonar testing on the ears of marine mammals has focused on the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.
In March, during the first phase of testing in the Bahamas, some 16 whales and dolphins were beached. Since then, Navy officials and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service have been looking for a possible connection between sonar testing that the Navy admits was going on in the region and the strandings.
Last October, four whales stranded in the U.S. Virgin Islands during a time when some local scientists believe unannounced sonar tests may have been taking place. A few weeks prior to that, about a dozen pilot whales stranded in the nearby British Virgin Islands.
By December, an expert at the Marine Mammal Stranding Network in Puerto Rico said research on the two animals that died — one on St. Thomas and one on St. John — were inconclusive, in part because tissue samples were not available.
Adam Quant, a researcher working with Dr. Rick Nemeth, a University of the Virgin Islands marine biologist, was one of a group of people diving near St. John's Lameshur Bay at the time of the stranding at Salt Pond Beach. He's convinced the Navy was conducting sonar testing. "We were hearing them that day," Quant said. "The noise was so intense, I was lifting my head every five minutes to see if they were passing over, but they were a couple of bays away."
Scientists studying the bodies of some of the whales that perished in the Bahamas found blood in their ears and sent tissue samples to the mainland for testing. The findings have not been conclusive, according to Paul Jobsis, an assistant professor of biology at UVI.
Jobsis is a key player in a year-long research project under contract with the Navy that's about to get under way at UVI on the possible effects of Trident submarine missile launchings on marine mammals and sea turtles. He said suspension of the New Jersey sonar testing is "a good sign" of cooperation between the military and environmentalists.
"They just decided to be cautious until the results of more tests are in," Jobsis said. He added that Navy officials are "going to continue with their schedule for LWAD tests, except for low-frequency active sonar."

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