the truth about why whales mass beach themselves

[dwms02]

Hi...

I am a marine environmentalists and a sea captain who has researched the mystery of why whales beach for over 40 years. I stumbled into Laura Knight-Jadczyk's article on meteorites and asteroids and was fascinated by her work. As it turns out, one of the causes of whale strandings I been looking at is barotrauma in the sinuses and air sacs of the head induced by sudden changes in hydrostatic pressure. I have reasoned that such "sudden" changes can be caused by undersea earthquakes, explosive volcanic eruption, and an impact of heavily body with the surface of the sea. A meteorite slamming into surface near a diving whale would cause a drastic positive pressure shift followed immediately by an equal but opposite drop in pressure. Such an occurrence could easily blow out the sinuses of a diving whale, which in turn would prevent the animal from diving and feeding due to intense pain. The barotrauma would also knock out its echo-location system since directional hearing underwater is dependent on functional sinuses and air sacs.

I also enjoyed the part Laura wrote about scientific corruption.

I really don't believe my 40-year effort has uncovered any new discoveries. Rather, I think I uncovered a massive cover up by US Marine Mammal Commission, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the US Navy, and thousands of marine mammal scientists.

Ninety-five percent (95%) of all the research funds for studying whales comes from either the Navy or the oil industry. They must prepare the environmental impact statements and other prove that they are not harming whales. These two groups are the largest acoustical polluters of the marine environment. They cause most of the barotrauma in marine mammals and sea turtles.

Their position is, regardless of whether barotrauma is caused by nature or by man, the topic must not be allowed to enter the public's mind as a cause of marine mammal and sea turtle strandings. If the public starts to connect barotrauma from natural causes with whale and turtle beachings, it will not take long before they see the part the navy and the oil industry plays. For this reason, the real cause of whale beachings (barotrauma) must remain out of the scientific journals and out of the minds of the taxpayers.

Marine mammal scientists don't dare publish anything that might suggest a pressure-related sinus injury in diving whales or sea turtles as a cause of beachings for fear that they would never get another grant from the source of 95% of the funding. Even to apply for a grant to study barotrauma will get them blacklisted. Instead, marine mammal experts suggest the whales are following a pod leader in a Jim-Jones style suicide. Or, they say the whales just got confused and all swam into the beach accidentally. Both these leading so-called scientific theories are really jokes played on the public. Marine mammal experts must surely know better! They know that sinus injury is the leading cause of strandings. They also know that sonar, oil industry air cannons, explosives, undersea earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions, and meteorite impacts are the major causes of sinus injury in marine mammals and sea turtles.

How stupid must a marine mammal scientist be not to ever question sinus barotrauma in the world's greatest divers? To not wonder about a pressure-related injury in diving mammals would be like the US Navy showing no concern for pressure-related injury in Navy divers.

What marine mammal scientists have done is IGNORE BAROTRAUMA completely as if it were impossible for a whale to ever suffer a pressure-related injury in their sinuses. Google "barotrauma and whales" and you come up with most my work. You can not show me any scientific effort whatsoever that talks specifically about injury in the sinuses and air sacs. What is more important for a deep diver than clean functional sinuses? How can a marine mammal scientist be an expert on the greatest divers the world has ever known and never wonder if they ever suffer a pressure-related injury? How can they get a degree in marine mammal science and never question pressure-related injury induced by explosions, airgun arrays, undersea earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteorite impact with the surface of the sea? How can they question sonar and never question any of the other causes of barotrauma?

As it turns out, even after the public forced them to study sonar injuries, the scientists blame the internal trauma on the poor whales. They say these animals get spooked by the sonar and surface too fast, ending up with the bends. What a joke....

Anyway, that's my take on things.

And, thanks Laura for an enjoyable article on heavily bodies.

Capt. David Williams, President
Deafwhale Society, Inc.

 

[sid]

Hi David

Welcome to the forum!

What you have posted appears to be making a whole lot of sense. I have read parts of your website and posting below some information for others to read.

http://www.deafwhale.com/seaquake_solution/index.html

SEAQUAKE-INDUCE BAROTRAUMA AND BEACHED WHALES


If you called the species of whales and dolphins that mass beach themselves "airheads" you would be technically correct because, excluding the bone and the brain, roughly 40% of the volume of their heads is occupied with easily compressible air. This air, enclosed in various sinuses and air sacs, plays a major role in the function of the whale's echo-navigation and location system. As pressure builds during a dive, the incompressible components retain their volume; however, the volume of air in the sinuses and air sacs would be quickly reduced by increasing pressure to a non-functional level within the first 30 meters if it were not for the fact that these whales can move compressed air from their lungs to maintain the proper sinus volume to ensure that echo-navigation and location continues to function underwater. The system of air pockets is awesome, but there are certain dangers in diving to great depths with a head full of compressed air. The tissues around these air cavities are susceptible to barotrauma when a sudden change in the surrounding water pressure causes the volume of air to change so rapidly and excessively that it cannot be safely handled by the body. Undersea earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and the sudden impact of a heavenly body with the surface of the sea can induce such sudden changes as to be hazardous to diving whales. Earthquakes on the seafloor are of special concern for the species that mass beach themselves because the mid-oceanic ridge system where these animals dive and feed every day of their lives is the most earthquake-active environment on Earth.

Understanding how these undersea earthquakes resolve the centuries-old mystery of why pods of toothed whales beach themselves requires a basic comprehension of the following facts:

(1) The species of toothed whales and dolphins (odontoceti) that mass beach feed primarily on squid above the 40,000-mile long mid-oceanic ridge system. This undersea volcanic mountain range serves as the epicenter for ~1,500 annual earthquakes between 4 and 6 magnitude. For energy comparison, a magnitude 4 quake releases the equivalent of 120,000 pounds of C4 plastic explosives, whereas a magnitude 6 quake releases the equivalent of 120,000,000 pounds of C4 explosives (link). Since 90% of these events originate less than 5 km below the rock/water interface, the amplitude of the impact at the seafloor is much great than it would be from deeper events that allow the energy to spread out within a larger volume of the Earth's crust.

(2) When the rock/water interface jerks violently during extremely shallow, mid-sized earthquakes, the basaltic bottom acts like the faceplate of a gigantic sonar transducers, generating powerful pressure oscillation in the water column (seaquakes) that travel toward the surface at 1,500 meters per second. Seismologists call these seismic pressure disturbances, T-phase waves.

(3) Rapid and excessive changes in the surrounding water pressure during a dive will cause barotrauma in the sinuses and air sacs of all exposed whales. The enclosed air spaces in the heads of toothed whales serve as acoustic mirrors to channel and reflect sound and to isolate the two inner ears; hence, a barotraumatic injury anywhere in the system of air cavities will disable echo-navigation and likely prevent the whales from diving and feeding due to intense pain.

(4) Whales without a sense of direction due to a barotraumatic injury will always swim downstream in the path of least resistance.

(5) In general, the wind controls the direction of the surface currents; however, in coastal waters the in and out flow of the tidal currents interact with the wind in controlling the direction and speed of the local currents.

(6) Barotraumatized pods of whales and dolphins moving downstream with the offshore currents are directed into coastal waters when strong winds shift the surface flow towards the land. The odds of a stranding are greatly increase when a strong wind blows shoreward at the same time the tidal currents are inflowing. On the contrary, whales never beach when a strong wind is blowing out to sea, especially during a falling tide.

(7) All the major stranding beaches have land masses, sand spits, and/or sand bars that extend out to sea opposing the general flow of the surface current. These areas trap both sand and the non-navigating whales swimming with the flow. Whales strand were beaches are building; they do not strand where beaches are eroding. A non-navigating pod washed into an inlet by an incoming tide will be left in the mud when the tide recedes. Pods that enter backwater lagoons on a tidal inflow are left on a sand bar or in a mangrove swamp when the tide ebbs. The current picks the stranding site, not the whales.

(8) When whales re-beach after rescuers set them free, the new stranding site is always downstream from the original, proving that after they are freed from the beach, whales always swim with the flow of the surface currents. Often, when the wind is blowing toward shore, released whales will turn and come back to the same beach.

(9) Sharks trail these pods like wolves trail a herd of elk. They wait patiently for a straggler to fall behind. The injured whales know the sharks are waiting so they stay close to their pod mates. The fear of being eaten alive explains why injured whales, when freed, will not swim away from the beach until the rest of the pod is also free.

(10) Seismological records show that a shallow mid-sized undersea earthquake has occurred on average about 2,600 miles upstream and about 27 days prior to every pod beaching for the last 50 years. Furthermore, these upstream quakes all happen along a section of mid-ocean ridge that just happens to be a known habitat for the species in question. Seismological records also show that there has never been a pod beaching when there were no suspicious undersea earthquakes located within the proper distance upstream.

A quick google search also resulted in this article -
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jreynolds/editorial_fiction_at_the_wall.html

If the Supreme Court decides to review the case of high intensity Navy sonar, as the Wall Street Journal yesterday urged, it will do well to ignore the Journal’s error-riddled editorial (“Judge Ahab and the Whales,” June 19). There is nothing “speculative” about the serious harm caused by sonar, as the Navy itself concedes. Though the harm that can be reduced by training with common sense safeguards, the Navy has refused, even in the face of overwhelming evidence linking mass whale mortalities to sonar exposure – a link characterized as “completely convincing” by the Navy’s own consultants.

Nor is there anything “activist” in the decisions of every federal court that has considered the Navy’s sonar training practices, concluding without exception that the Navy is not above the law and that, when it tests and trains with sonar, it can and must do so in an environmentally responsible manner. In the case up for review, the trial and appellate courts found that the Navy has repeatedly violated the law, that its own limited mitigation is “woefully inadequate,” and that the Navy can do a better job of protecting the health of our oceans without in any way compromising the Navy’s sonar training.

There is no question that sonar can injure and kill whales and dolphins. In fact, according to the Navy’s own conservative estimate, sonar exercises now underway in Southern California waters will significantly disturb or injure an estimated 170,000 marine mammals, including causing permanent injury to more than 450 whales and temporary hearing impairment in at least 8,000 whales – an injury that increases the risks of attack by predators. Again, those aren’t wild accusations by sandal-clad environmentalists – those are the estimates of the U.S. Navy in its official “Environmental Assessment” of the exercise.

Yet when they talk to the press, Navy officials still try to obscure the issue, casting doubt on whether sonar actually harms marine mammals. Take this recent statement by Capt. Scott Gureck, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet: “There’s no scientific proof that sonar by itself has ever directly killed or injured whales or other marine mammals.”

That’s right: water and ships also were involved, and the direct cause of death was internal bleeding.

Any hope that we could put aside the tortured semantics and focus on a solution went out the window in January when the Navy ran to President Bush for help. As many know by now, the Bush Administration issued two “emergency” waivers, one signed by the President himself, purporting to exempt the Navy from basic environmental laws in the interests of national security.

The irony is that if any emergency exists, it was created by the Navy itself, which month after month stubbornly failed to comply with environmental laws as it planned the sonar training exercises in question. Since when does failure to comply a law excuse one from complying with the law? That just doesn’t make sense. Nor does the President’s attempt to cast this controversy as an issue of national security.

Does the Navy need to train with sonar? We have never argued otherwise because the Navy has determined that mid-frequency active sonar is a critical tool for defending our ships, sailors and marines from underwater threats.

That doesn’t mean national security is jeopardized when a court orders the Navy to train in an environmentally responsible manner. The Army doesn’t train riflemen on crowded city streets, and the Air Force doesn’t practice bombing sorties over national parks. Why shouldn’t the Navy take common sense precautions when training with sonar in rich marine mammal habitat?

To be fair, the Navy has in the past adopted a number of procedures (albeit under legal pressure from conservationists) to reduce harm to whales. But the Navy has inexplicably abandoned those procedures for its southern California training exercises. After being ordered by a federal court to do more, the Navy asked the White House to excuse it from those common sense requirements -- for example, the requirement that it avoid areas where large numbers of marine mammal are known to be, and temporarily shut down active sonar when marine mammals are detected within 2000 meters of a sonar source.

The alternative, of course, is to knowingly assault these sound-sensitive creatures at close range with ear-splitting, hemorrhage-inducing noise. Whales shouldn’t have to suffer and die for the sake of convenience, and when it comes down to it, that’s really what we’re talking about.

Is reducing sonar harm to whales and dolphins an inconvenience? Perhaps. But the courts have repeatedly ruled that environmental planning to reduce the avoidable infliction of harm to marine life is required by our most basic environmental laws – laws that reflect our collective moral sense that the natural world warrants our respect and stewardship.

It is, after all, our world, too.

 

[Hildegarda]

Hi David,

Thank you for your post. Would you please introduce yourself at the Newbies section, just a few basic words about who you are and what your interest in the forum is. The forum guidelines are there also for your reference.

Look forward to hearing more from you,

 

[Possibility of Being]

Welcome to the forum David.

I'm afraid though that the hint you gave us to google "barotrauma and whales" was not exactly what you meant as it gives back one hit only which goes to some folks who don't look like your best friends. I'm glad Sid posted a link to your Web site.