EXCLUSIVE: 'This Is Another Smoking Gun' [sonar & porpoise alert]

KVI 57O AM (thru link to KOMO News) ^ | August 8, 2003 | Tracy Vedder

[Eala]

SEATTLE - "This is very severe hemorrhaging."

Ken Balcomb says new pictures of the brain of a harbor porpoise that died in Puget Sound last May are very telling.

The pictures show signs of severe trauma.

"This is another smoking gun for me that we've got a consistent trauma here," says whale researcher Balcomb.

Balcomb says the evidence convinces him that Navy sonar killed the porpoises.

Government scientists examined 11 porpoises that washed ashore. But they won't release any evidence until all the lab results are in. They tell KOMO 4 News that will take at least two more months.

But Congress plans to decide next month whether to exempt the Navy from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Balcomb says, "I'm concerned that the design of the whole investigation is intended to slow things down."

The investigation should tell us if Navy sonar killed the 11 porpoises. The USS Shoup used sonar on a training exercise off San Juan Island.

In a rare coincidence, whale researchers using underwater hydrophones, recorded the sound and its effect on killer whales.

Within days, dead porpoises started washing up.

Three months later, the National Marine Fisheries is still investigating.

Navy Lt. Bill Couch says, "The Navy is very interested in the results, we are sensitive to the plight of marine mammals in Puget Sound so it's important to wait for those final results."

National Marine Fisheries says its investigation into the porpoise deaths is completely separate from the congressional debate over marine mammal protection.

But Balcomb believes the government should know what killed the porpoises before it decides whether to allow the Navy to ignore rules protecting marine mammals.

[GladesGuru]

Defense of the Republis is more important than dead porposes. Men died so that the republic could be born, and so that it might survive and prosper.

While I went to school with John Lily's son, Charlies, and went by Lily's old porpose lab in Coconut Grove, I think that both pioneer and present porpose researchers, including Lily, would say that some deaths are the price of liberty.

Having said that, perhaps a gradually increasing use of the sonar system in question might clear an area of marine mammals, depending on how large an area is being ensonified, and how directional is the beam from the transducers.

In any case, we should beware of those willing to risk the security of the Republic for any reason. Especially questionable are the NGO leaders and their fellow travelers in congress who use any pretext to weaken America so that socialism might survive longer.

[anniegetyourgun]

Ken Balcomb

[AF68]

If the envirowackos and their "progressive" allies in Congress had their way, they'd be shutting down a majority of our military bases in order to save bugs and rats; the Republic be damned.

[taxed2death]

"security of the Republic".


Don't make me laugh. GWB's open border policies are allowing 4000 - 6000 illegals to wander over our borders every 24 hours.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Capt. Tom]

Don't make me laugh. GWB's open border policies are allowing 4000 - 6000 illegals to wander over our borders every 24 hours.

That- and "Islam is a peaceful religion" scares the hell out of me. - tom

[bigfootbob]

I agree we should not allow the security of this nation to be put at risk due to the "precautionary principle" the enviro-nazi's use for everything they dislike. However, FreeRepublic being what it is, this issue has been discussed and as usual we have a Freeper, (Longcut) who's a Navy sonar operator who offered his take at this issue on this thread;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/938185/posts

See post #30 for a different take.

[Eala]

bigfottbob, thanks for the link! Very enlightening.

And interesting... I did a brief Google search on Balcomb before posting. He's also a former Navy sonar operator, and though he's quite a darling of the Left (as reflected by the written), some of the comments indicate it is possible he might not be so different from Longcut.

[ChadGore]

disarm the Navy to save the whales ?

Proof that the environmental whacko left does indeed have an agenda.

[King Prout]

bigfootbob: thanks for posting that link.
Long Cut, Fresh Wind: thanks for adding your experienced perspectives to this debate.

All:
I am sometimes amazed at the anti-environmental dudgeon displayed here on this site. Though I am no tree- or bunny-hugger, I am a conservationist. Why? Because I am the *antithesis* of PETA/Sierra: I am a hunter. If the consequences of that fact escape you, I submit you do not belong on a conservative forum.

Just becuase we humans are the stewards of the Earth does not gve us cate-blanche to turn it into a sewer.
Just because we humans war does not mean we should callously and needlessly drag other species into our own messes.

[bigfootbob]

Alternatively, could it be, that a lot of Freepers have been personally slapped by the long arm of the regulatory bureaucracy and you sometimes bitch more when you are around friends.

I too am a conservationist. I am the 4th generation in a family that makes their living growing agricultural products. We love the land, and most of the critters that inhabit the place.

At FreeRepublic posters allow us to see environmental policy being crafted from junk or political science. I think the voluminous amount of regulatory abuse posted here is not only beneficial to help stop agenda driven land thefts, but also very frustrating to some.

[HairOfTheDog]

Just because we humans are the stewards of the Earth does not gve us cate-blanche to turn it into a sewer. Just because we humans war does not mean we should callously and needlessly drag other species into our own messes.

Exactly. I think it would behoove us to be aware of and limit our impact where possible. The right answer is not a pissing match between environuts and the right wing who is simply 'for' whatever the enviromentalists are against. "Goddammit it's my right to piss where I please" is not the world I want to live in...

This is an investigation into whether there is an impact here that no one expected that can be avoided in the future because it is the right thing to do wherever possible and reasonable. We have a lot of ocean in which to test sonar and train.... the relatively populated (with marine mammals and relatively confined waters of the San Juans might not be the perfect place to do it ~if~ it is found to be harmful. Fine and reasonable. Military aircraft don't just go around supersonic and breaking windows in the name of security either. They do it where it is more bearable.

I am sometimes amazed at the anti-environmental dudgeon displayed here on this site.

I agree. It doesn't help the cause of conservatism to loudly denounce any responsibility for environmental stewardship that is enforceable.

Whale watching is BIG business and a neat Northwest feature. The environment I love is worth protecting where possible.... No one can argue that humans beings have one hell of an impact wherever we go. It is a stupid and arrogant abuse to say it doesn't matter what we do. It matters to me.

[demkicker]

I agree. If this report happens to be true, and I refuse to automatically condemn it, I am glad it is getting publicized. I would like to remind all FReepers that there have been many military boondogles in the past. If this report happens to be true, folks who dismiss it are over the top, IMO. Gathering further scientific information is in order here, rather than knee jerk comments.