[Coral-List] plea for help

kmuzik at gmail.com kmuzik at gmail.com
Sun Jun 1 17:08:17 EDT 2014


I would like to send out a message on the coral-list.

Please let me know how to do so. Here is the query I would like to post:



What will be the effects of sonar on marine life from the RIMPAC naval
exercises here in Hawai'i, starting this June and ending in July?  There
will be midfrequency active sonar (1kHz-10kHz) used to assist with
navigation and hunt for quiet submarines. RIMPAC this year includes 43
ships from 23 countries (this year, China too! along with South Korea,
Japan, Bulgaria, Colombia, etc.), 25,000 people, more than 200 aircraft and
submarines practicing war, sinking ships, sending Aegis missiles aloft to
Kwajalein, etc etc. Besides noisy rocket launches, there will be Boeing
V-22 Ospreys and Sikorsky S-61N Helicopters hovering around, helping to
test the new Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator rocket. There are 1,100
square miles of instrumented underwater range and over 42,00 square miles
of controlled airspace.  While the Hawaii Operating Range consists of
235,000 square miles, the extended Temporary Operating Area includes 2.1
million square miles and extends all the way to Wake Island.

The National Marine Fisheries Service explicitly allows Navy sonar tests
and training exercises to result in the deaths of specific numbers of
whales and dolphins.  NOAA authorized the Navy to kill up to 20 whales and
dolphins among 10 different species living here during the course of its
sonar exercises.

Nobody is talking about corals.

I am.

I have 15 minutes on a Panel Discussion about RIMPAC, Saturday June 7, to
talk about the effects of sonar on marine life.  I have evidence suggesting
that sonar can kill marine mammals by causing their organs to hemorrhage or
by frightening them so they beach, but I need data about the effects of
sonar on corals.   I VERY MUCH want to include coral in my presentation.

I am aware that planulae can "hear" where an appropriate reef to settle is,
I of course know that polyps shrink away from vibrations (from predators,
cameras etc). I am sure that noise is a destructive factor (whether from
detonations for oil exploration, offshore construction projects, huge
ships, war practice, and war itself) but I have no evidence. I am searching
for data on the effects of sonar on corals, at whatever life stage. Can
someone please provide me data for corals?

Thank you, Aloha!

Katherine Muzik
Kaua'i


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