Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Navy using sonar in Haro Strait on April 7th, 2009



Just got word that a Navy submarine was using it's mid frequency sonar off the west side of San Juan Island last night. Click on the file above to listen to the compilation by our friend John Boyd.

As a side note, the commenting period for the rule making allowing the Navy to use this potentially harmful technology, in the waters designated as critical habitat for the regions killer whales, (not to mention every other organism) is still open. You can visit the other website listed below and let them hear your thoughts.

http://www.nwtrangecomplexeis.com/GetInvolved.aspx

Or call the Navy representative Sheila Murray, Navy Region Northwest environmental public affairs officer, at (360) 340-5398.

Let the navy hear from you, as the whales are definitely hearing from them!

1 comment:

Orcinus said...

Hello.

Even though this entry is over 3 years old and I just found it, I still felt I should add what I know.

I served in the USCG for four years. I have heard this "metallic voice" and similar pings before. That was back in the 1970's.

While the first part of this recording is of high power sonar pings, the "metallic voice" is not sonar but something completely different.

It is a device called the underwater telephone also known as UQC, AN/WQC-2, or Gertrude and was developed by the U.S. Navy in 1945 for surface ship to submarine communications.

This happened during fleet exercises with the Navy. I happened to hear the UQC in operation when I was assisting the Sonar Tech move some equipment into the sonar bay and our ship began transmitting. It was as loud as the recording but I was not that far from the transponder on the hull. Approximately 15 feet from where we were standing according to the Tech.

Several days later while below deck, I heard pings similar to the recording but then they were in groups of three all at slightly different pitches. I later learned from the Sonar Tech the transmitting ship had been about 5 miles away at the time. It sounded as loud as someone whistling in the room. The whole crew was commenting about it.

I don't know how far your hydrophone was from the source but both were surely more powerful than the systems on the our ship.

Both the UQC and the sonar pings must be annoying, if not physically damaging due to their strength to underwater life. Fortunately though since it is at the lower end of the Cetacean hearing range, I think it's more of an annoyance to them than something physically damaging. Like your neighbor's 1000 Watt sub-woofer on his home theater.

However for me, the interesting thing is the use of the UQC.

I've been involved in three different interspecies communications projects in my life. Two were private ventures. The third you might have heard of, Dr. John Lilly's JANUS project.

I can say quite confidently that the UQC is the simple type of device that would be needed to create a two way communication with Cetaceans either as it stands or with a few very simple modifications.

I've gotten to personally get know many Cetaceans and a couple of Orcas. Cetaceans are highly Intelligent and do want to communicate. Maybe we have been for decades and it been kept from public knowledge. The UQC is a Military Device after all.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/OrcinusOrca/LJ/MeKotar.jpg