HappyScrappy said:They were testing a new sytem and it was to determine how loud they could safely crank it. and they found out.
on a side note, my super powers seem to be corrupted as well. I can no longer see through walls or burn holes in my pants with my lazer vision.
minion said:
And before sonar was invented, why did whales beach themselves then. There must be some one to blame. Right?
Whales have been beaching themselves since before the dawn of man.
Imnotdutch said:
I think that is an oversimplification.......you would have to consider the frequency of beaching before and after sonar came about.
HappyScrappy said:whales tend to beach due to misreads of their own systems. they effectively ping to navigate and some say communicate as well.
sonar might confuse them - but things have been confusing them as long as they have been around. certain shoreline shapes will bounce the patterns back in a way so that they will misread it and go the wrong way. apparently they don't notice the change in terrain.
as for the Naval deal killing the whales - the report I read, which perhaps was a different one, was that the whales didn't beach but died from the sound in the water.
the Navy has a "new" (in development for years) sysytem that allows them to see more detail and see further out, with varied signals, but it requires a louder signal. sound is essentially cranking energy through the water in waves - so a very loud sound is just a lot of energy. and since it is not a straight line but a sphere that it will extend out to (although a partial one due to the surface of the water) - then you are dealing with an inverse square law.
meaning basically that they need a low of power going into this - and the designers knew that with that much power it was feasible that there could be a physical effect on the creatures nearby.
they tested it, and it killed the whales that were in the area.
but now they know the upper limit and they know how close/far away animals can be from it before death, at least in the case of the whales.
again, don't know if that is the same report as what you are posting.
and I don't think we should get rid of sonar. I like tech things. I do think we should get rid of tennis though.
buddy28 said:Minion,
ive seen a few shows on this. Apparently the US navy is adopting a new high intensity sonar system used to detect ultra silent enemy submarines.
Whales use echolocation, a biological form of sonar, for internal navigation and communication. Perhaps more, Im no expert.
The high intensity sonar system is theorized to rupture or severly damage the whales endogenous echolocation system, thus rendering their internal navigation useless, so they die.
Pretty sad actually. I guess this is just another example of mans contempt for nature.
Sure we need to nuke the Chinese, but at what cost?
its really not funny. But, I can acknowledge the importance of the sonars applications.
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