Navy, orca scientists compromise on sonar

Published 9:00 pm Friday, November 18, 2005

Maybe the Navy can have its sonar and orcas, too.

Herald file A 5-month-old orca swims with its aunt off the coast of San Juan Island near Lime Kiln Point State Park in 2003.

That’s an early position spelled out in a plan by federal biologists to boost the numbers of local orcas threatened with extinction.

The three resident pods, now numbering 88 killer whales, were added to the federal list of endangered species on Tuesday.

The Navy and federal biologists say they have already enacted measures to avoid sonar damage to whales and other mammals that rely on echolocation or sensitive hearing for their food.

One whale advocate is cautiously hopeful of those steps, but another says it’s not enough.

One of the key factors biologists fear has hurt orcas is underwater noise. That’s where the Navy comes in.

On May 5, 2003, the Everett-based Navy destroyer USS Shoup drew fierce criticism from whale researchers for conducting military exercises using midrange tactical sonar in Haro Strait between San Juan and Vancouver islands.

Some researchers reported watching orcas acting distressed, and 11 harbor porpoises washed ashore dead in the following few days.

A federal investigative team later cleared the Shoup and the Navy. That decision was denounced by some private whale researchers, but since then the debate has mellowed a bit.

The reason is that the Navy has reached out to scientists and taken steps to avoid using sonar when whales are near ships, said Howard Garrett, board president of Orca Network, based on Whidbey Island.

“There hasn’t been another incident that we know of,” Garrett said. “I can very cautiously say things seem to have improved.”

Navy officials started communicating regularly with private researchers after the Shoup incident, Garrett said.

The Navy developed a new computer database that can track the time and location of training exercises and compare it with the latest locations where researchers have spotted orcas or other marine mammals, said Sheila Murray, a Navy spokeswoman.

The Navy already was using lookouts to spot whales, as well as passive sonar to listen for whale vocalizations.

Rules now stop sonar transmissions if any whales are spotted within 200 yards, Murray said.

“I know that if there’s any marine mammals, not just orcas, if they’re in the way, the Navy just pretty much stops whatever they’re doing,” she said.

Since the Shoup incident, each ship is required to get an admiral’s authorization from Pacific fleet offices in Hawaii before engaging sonar, she added.

The Navy still needs to do more, said Fred Felleman, the Seattle-based northwest director of Ocean Advocates. The Navy has sophisticated equipment that listens for enemy vessels, and that equipment should also be used to track whales more effectively, Felleman said.

“To have the third largest naval complex (of installations) in the world rely on Orca Network for their maps is embarrassing,” Felleman said.

The main question for both the Navy and Felleman will be where biologists determine the local orcas’ most critical habitats are, they said.

That decision could come as soon as January, said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Garrett said he hopes the new endangered status helps focus attention beyond the orcas’ summer feeding areas near the San Juan islands.

Recent research indicates that local orcas spend part of the winter in the Olympic Marine Sanctuary off the coast on their way to the Columbia River, Garrett said.

The Navy still does sonar testing near the sanctuary, Garrett said. He said he hoped the Navy would avoid testing there, too, when whales are present.

“That’s probably the most we can ask for,” he said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@ heraldnet.com.