WASHINGTON – Federal ocean scientists said Wednesday they were unable to determine whether Navy sonar caused a mass stranding of whales on the North Carolina shore last year.
In their report on the stranding – one of the largest and most troubling in two decades – the National Marine Fisheries Services researchers concluded that Navy ships had used sonar in the area the day before the whales came onshore. But detailed necropsies and analyses did not find any physical signs of a connection between the loud sonar pings and the whales’ rush to shore.
“Experts from around the country worked on these samples and tests, and the bottom line is that we are not able to reach a definitive cause for the stranding,” said Aleta Hohn, the Fisheries Service’s lead scientist.
The report concluded that most of the animals were otherwise healthy. In all, 33 pilot whales, 2 pygmy sperm whales and a minke whale stranded and died within two days. Strandings of more than one species at a time are rare.
The Navy and environmentalists had anxiously awaited the report on the January 2005 stranding because the animals died near the proposed site of a 660-square-mile underwater sonar testing range.
The Navy has said the sonar range is essential to train sailors and will not be a danger to the many whales in the area. Some environmentalists disagree, saying that the rising number of strandings around the world linked to naval active sonar makes the range – which is near a major whale migration path – a threat to animals.
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