Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-035"
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"en.20041028.3.4-035"2
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"Mr President, high-intensity naval sonar is a form of under-water radar system used mainly for the detection of submarines. Instead of the electromagnetic energy waves used by surface radar, it employs acoustic energy waves with which it scans the water of the oceans. These acoustic waves are, in simple terms, very loud noises which travel over many hundreds of kilometres and, in the areas used, completely fill every cubic inch of ocean water without any geographical limitation. Sometimes they are so loud that they can even be heard outside the water by people standing at nearby shores.
It is not surprising that such high-energy noise bombardment causes severe disruption to marine life. This disruption is especially extensive to animals that by nature have very sensitive acoustic capabilities, such as whales and dolphins. What a whale hears and feels when sonar is used is the equivalent of what we would hear and feel if four jumbo jet engines were operating at full blast in this room. The scientific evidence gathered mainly from necropsies on stranded whales is becoming increasingly stronger and more enlightening and it is convincing to most scientists, and it certainly satisfies our precautionary principle.
Apart from direct injury to internal organs such as the inner ear apparatus, the sonar waves cause the animals to panic and in terror to move uncontrollably and haphazardly, trying desperately to escape from the painful and disorientating sonar noise. In so doing, they may rise very quickly from deep waters, thus suffering a form of fatal decompression sickness and/or they may be stranded on nearby beaches where they meet their demise.
It should be noted that for every animal stranded, many hundreds more are killed or severely injured but we never get to know about them because they never reach the shores. It should also be noted that dying from the effects of sonar injury is an extremely painful, agonising and slow form of death.
It is imperative that the motion for a resolution which has been submitted by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calling for the restriction of the use of these sonars be passed urgently and unchanged in substance. The amendment proposing the restriction of the use of sonars in geographically non-sensitive marine habitats, if accepted, will severely weaken this resolution and render it largely ineffective."@en1
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