Where’s all the save-the-whale types when you need them? From Morgan E. Hunter at antiwar.com:
Or, I Know Why the Humpback Doesn’t Sing
Remember The Hunt for Red October? Tom Clancy’s first novel (1985), it was also the first novel ever published by, of all things, The United States Naval Institute Press, a 19th century spin-off of the US Naval Academy previously known exclusively for naval professional reference books, such as The Naval Officer’s Guide. Heavily promoted by Reagan’s Navy Department and its Congressional lobbyists, the book became a best seller. It also introduced its readers to the latest threat the Navy was pushing to justify the massive Reagan-era military buildup, namely “ultra-quiet Soviet subs”. The eponymous Red October had “a cutting-edge silent propulsion system, known as the caterpillar drive, that makes audio detection by passive sonar extremely difficult”. Well, the Navy is at it again, this time touting silent Chinese subs instead of Soviet ones, as the rationale for a new ultra-powerful active sonar system that threatens to be deadly to marine mammals, especially whales.
On August 13th, the US Navy received permission to conduct large-scale tests of ultra-powerful low-frequency active sonar across a vast area of the Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans. This enhanced testing program, slated to continue until 2026, follows up on earlier use of SURTASS LFA. Even by the Navy’s own estimates, tens of thousands of marine mammals, from dozens of species, will be negatively affected by the incredibly-loud pulses of sound produced by the system. (There are two types of sonar: passive, which is simply listening for sounds, and active sonar, which is like echolocation and requires actively bouncing a signal off the thing you’re trying to detect.)
