THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS OF THE WHALE AND DOLPHIN FAMILIES.

This message is a call to action

The United States Marine Mammal Commission conducted an extensive study of the Navy's SURTASS LFAS (Low Frequency Active Sonar) system and concluded, "If the LFA sonar is made available for worldwide deployment as proposed, all species and populations of marine mammals could possibly be affected."

"The possible effects could include: death from lung hemorrhage and other tissue trauma; temporary or permanent hearing loss or impairment; disruption of feeding, breeding, nursing, acoustic communication and sensing, or other vital behavior; annoyance and subsequent abandonment or avoidance of traditional feeding, breeding or other biologically important habitats; psychological and physiological stress, disease, parasites and predation; and changes in the distribution, abundance, or productivity of marine mammal prey species and subsequent decreases in both individual marine mammal survival and productivity in population size and productivity.   

Ocean Defense International says the security of the United States depends on a clean, healthy environment and ODI is alarmed about the US Navy's impending deployment of SURTASS LFAS when there are alternatives to LFA Sonar that do not harm the environment.

LFAS poses one of the greatest threats to marine mammals and other marine life. This threat is unacceptable considering that the US Navy can fulfill its mission for national security by using advanced passive detection systems.  The US  Navy has a duty of environmental stewardship of the sea which will be abrogated upon deployment of LFAS.

In view of the unacceptable risk to whales and other marine life posed by  LFAS, a comprehensive independent scientific assessment must be conducted regarding its potentially catastrophic impact on the global marine environment.  Our national security depends on it. 

The  Natural Resources Defense Council is deeply concerned about the U.S. Navy's plan to deploy LFAS, calling it a dangerous new system that could affect as much as 80 percent of the planet's oceans and life around the world.

At close range, the noise that LFA generates is millions of times more intense than the Navy considers safe for human divers and billions of times more intense than levels known to disturb large whales.  And because that noise spreads so far, its environmental impact could be enormous. It is expected to cause hearing loss and disruptions in communication and breeding in animals whose lives are governed by sound.  And, in the worst case, it could result in strandings, serious injury, or death, as in the Bahamas, where many whales stranded themselves and died after a Navy sonar exercise.

There have been numerous reports of dead and dying whales and dolphins being beached within a huge radius of beaches from the blasts--it basically blows their brains out.  A large whale pod stranded itself and died in August at Cape Cod.

The Navy is seeking to deploy LFA without addressing some of the system's worst potential impacts, such as the internal injury that is believed to have occurred in the Bahamas whales; without adequately examining the connection between active sonar and mass stranding; and without evaluating the system's long-term, cumulative effects on populations of whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles, and other marine animals.

To deploy LFA under these conditions would be unconscionable. In light of the substantial risks it presents to marine species and habitat around the world,  we strongly urge you to halt deployment of the system until the long-term safety of ocean wildlife can be assured

As expected, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced in early September, 2002 a decision to support the U.S. Navy's deployment of LFAS.

Manataka member Lynn Smith of Australia forwarded a message from a "Dove of Oneness" who says,  "Every time I see info on the Navy's Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS), I am deeply ashamed of the men and women in the U.S. Navy who have worked on and supported this needless technology and shown their ignorant and sacrilegious disregard for life."  

"We can stop the senseless killing of whales and dolphins by the Navy's LFAS.  I'm told these ignorant people will be learning some very big personal lessons NOW about failing to cherish LIFE and that there is intervention occurring to persuade the Navy they may not use this technology. Let us all be heard on behalf of our friends of the sea,"

Lynn says, "I wholeheartedly agree with what has been said by 'Dove of Oneness' as I feel and have been blessed to experience a very very deep affinity with the whales and dolphins..." We agree with this statement too.  How about you?

"I awake in the morning, torn between a desire
to save the world, and a desire to savor the world.
That makes it hard to plan the day."
                                                        -- E.B. White

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts
to improve the life of others, or strikes out against
injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and those
ripples, crossing each other from a million different
centers of energy, build a current which can sweep
down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
                                                    -- Robert F. Kennedy

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Below, is a list of recommended areas of involvement. Please scroll to items of interest response. Please circulate this list to your friends and communities.

*     Write Letters-to-the-Editor

*     Write, fax, call and/or email members of Congress

*     Write, fax, call and/ or email House Resources Committee 

        Members (Due to security concerns mail to Washington D.C. is 

        delayed for as much as one month)

*     Contact your local Coastal Commission

*     Send a letter to the Secretary of the Navy
           http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?tep=2&item=12913 

*     Call local radio and television stations, and newspapers

*     Sign the Save the Whales Petition:

            http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/129527570

*     Educate friends and foes, and spread the word in all directions.
*     Work the inner realms of positive thought, prayer and intention.
       Root action in intelligence and compassion.

*     Use your unique talents to help protect marine life...all life.

*     Create a dance, poem, story, video, play, visual arts piece.

*     Stage an event.
*     Take time to appreciate what you are committed to protecting.

*     Contact and Support activists organizations at:

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