Whale facts

Military sonar technology causes beachings

Submarines have been using low and mid-frequency active sonar technology, a deafening soundwave that is dangerous even 300 miles from it's source. Some mid-frequency sonar systems can put out over 235 decibals, which is about as loud as a rocket launch.
Animals for hundreds of miles literally jump out of the ocean to try to avoid the sound. The damaging effects vary, bet are akin to decompression sickness causing internal bleeding and bursting organs including lungs and eardrums. When beached dolphins are reported this sonar technology is rarely mentioned in the news, although the link has been demonstrated.

What can you do? learn more here

(update: court blocks sonar 7/6/06)

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Beachings linked to military low-mid frequency active sonar

Mass beachings have been associated with active sonar have occurred in Madeira (2000), Greece (1996), the U.S. Virgin Islands (1998, 1999), the Canary Islands (1985, 1988, 1989, 2002), and, northwest coast of the United States (2003).update: court blocks sonar 7/6/06

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LFA is low frequency active sonar

LFA stands for Low Frequency Active sonar, a technology used by submarines to "see." Unfortunately even one hundred miles from the source of a LFA source animals experience the equivalent of decompression sickness, killing every dolphin, porpoise, orca, and whale within 100-300 miles, depending on the decibal. It's no good for humans either.

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Artic legend man talks to animals

There are arctic legends that speak of a time when man could understand and speak with whales. In fact, many legends worldwide speak of a time when people and animals understood each other.

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Blue whale weight and length

Blue whales reach between 70-110 feet in length and weigh up to 150 tons.

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Biggest animal in the world

The blue whale is the largest animal in the world. The largest blue whale caught was a 110-foot female. It is not known how the angler got this beast home or how they fit it in the freezer.

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Blue whale massacre crustaceans

The blue whale, the worlds largest animal at 110 feet according to guiness world records eat krill, which are shrimp-like crustaceans only about an inch-and-a-half long.

Pick on somebody your own size? Not whales! An adult whale might slaughter 40 million, or 4-6 tons of these little creatures in one day!!

Amazingly, the krill population persists, but you have to assume this perpetual atrocity affects the krills ability to develop a stable society.

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Animal sonar, echolocation, and noise pollution

Whales and dolphins have a tool called echolocation, a sonar which allows them to "see" their prey, even it's internal workings! Noise pollution in the water has a significant effect on whales ability to navigate, hunt, locate their pods, and reproduce.

Echolocating animals have two ears positioned slightly apart. The echoes returning to the two ears arrive at different times and at different loudness levels, depending on the position of the object generating the echoes. The time and loudness differences are used by the animals to perceive direction. With echolocation the bat or other animal can see not only where it's going but can also see how big another animal is, what kind of animal it is, and other features as well.

- wikipedia

Many modern submarines use their own sonar a low and mid-frequency sonar is so deafening the pressure waves affect animals on the cellular level, causing the equivalent of "the bends" or decompression sickness. For animals with echolocation this causes sonar function to fail and leaves these animals blind, if they're lucky. What often results is massive beachings (update: court blocks sonar 7/6/06)

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Why are whales bad for you?

Beluga whales are at the top of the food chain. A nice distinction, but it also means they acquire the sum total of toxins acquired by organisms all the way down the chain because these toxins such as PCB and heavy metal poisoning don't break down. Belugas, in fact, are so full of contaminants, when they are found beached they qualify as a toxic biohazard.

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beluga whales are toxic biohazards

Beluga whales are at the top of the food chain. A nice distinction, however, it also means they acquire the sum total of toxins in the organisms in that chain. Since PCBs and heavy metals don't break down in any organism they accumulate instead.

So when a Beluga eats a salmon that ate a crustacean that grubbed on some plant, all the PCBs and heavy metals that these organisms absorbed end up in the beluga.

Belugas, in fact, are so full of contaminants, when they are found beached they qualify as a toxic biohazard.

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What is the world's largest animal?

The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons.

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What is the most expensive dinner a whale ever ate?

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

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