Save Our Seas

[Carl Stepath]

Some contact information that you may be interested in.  Sorry if this
email is an inconvenience.  I recieved this information and wanted to pass
it on for those who may be concerned.  Have a great day, and best wishes to
you and your family.

A Conscious Choice:

Please circulate this email to everyone you know this week. It concerns the
lively hood of the Humpback whales that are being killed by the US Navy in
the waters of Hawai'i. It concerns the lively hood of our oceans, the
mammals and fish that inhabit them and ultimately our planet.

Please send protests to the media, your local politicians and congressmen.
Some suggested email addresses are included below.

LFA questions should be directed to John Yoshishige of the Navy at-471-3769

Please read the following and visit the site at
http://www.dreamweaving.com/lfas.htm for current updates.

If you have an email distribution list and would like to be put on our
email list mailto:lfas at dreamweaving.com and put "add" in subject header.
Other wise visit the site for updates.

If you would like to be removed from our email list
mailto:lfas at dreamweaving.com and put "remove" in subject header. My
apologies.

Background:

Since the thirties sound has been used to map geophysical and underwater
data. In the second world war sonar was used to detect submarines. Over the
years the detection sensitivity got better and the resolution increased.
And so did the technologies. All of this added to the noise pollution to
the waters of our planet.

In the past several years the US Navy has been testing high intensity sound
to increase the range and resolution. These programs were called ATOC,
which met public opposition, then LAS and more recently renamed LFAS for
Low Frequency Acoustic Sound. And over the years the sound levels increased
>from the ping we heard in old submarine movies to blasts of sound at around
200dB. 10,000 times the loudness of a 747 at take off. Many thousands times
louder than is needed to do permanent damage to living tissue resulting in
internal bleeding, disorientation, ruptured ear drums and other sometimes
fatal effects. A deaf whale is a dead whale. If you were a tourist swimming
in the waters off the west coast of the Big Island it could be you.

Many whales have already been killed. In 1995/6 off the coast of
California, and later in the year in the beautiful Hawaiian waters off
Maui, Oahu and the Big Island. And now the Navy has calibrated its
equipment to start the third phase of testing the LFAS in the humpback
whales birthing waters off the big island of Hawai'i on Monday, March 2nd
1998.

Your appeal to stop this is needed today. Please circulate this message to
everyone who is environmentally conscious about our endangered species. By
emailing, faxing and calling the media, our environmentalists and the
politicians we can bring this to the attention of the world and halt this
slaughter and disruption of our planet's natural cycles.

Your action is needed NOW!

Why LFAS?

This is a classified subject so not much is known. However, it is also
obvious. The LFAS is under the command of the SpaWars program out of San
Diego, CA. An offshoot of StarWars program the SpaWars is the result of the
Space/Navy merger last October. The LFAS permits the Navy to take a snap
shot of the ocean and so monitor the movement of both man made submarines
and according to some sources extraterrestrial craft. The incredibly loud
pressure wave of the LFAS broadcast travels for many many miles. Possibly
hundreds and maybe thousands. The military is not telling, nor are they
telling us the specific frequencies they are using.

Why the testing?

In order to satisfy the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered
Species Acts of Cetaceans the Navy is obliged to show that the sound levels
will not harm the whales. This has then in a rather tricky situation, on
the one hand to make it appear that they are not harming the mammals and on
the other hand maintaining the secrecy around work. An Environmental
Assessment was completed and scientists and medical experts were hired to
monitor the tests. Looks good on the surface, but as we all know those
scientist also by the nature of the study are bound by the Official Secrets
Act. So, just how accurate can they be in their diagnostics and evaluation?
In the past the Navy has had a lousy track record by not keeping to the
outline agreed upon in the Environmental Assessment. It sounds good on
paper, but in reality the Navy goes and does what it wants no matter what
the expense may be.

Further more the second and third phases of the testing have began before
first and second phases have been evaluated by any legitimate independant
scientific body. Surprise, Surprise!!

In November last year for instance a whale was found a week after the
testing in the waters near the test area. But, due to the nature of the way
that the sound effects body tissue it is hard to pin point exactly the
cause of death without a neocropsy. And even then it would be very easy to
sway the opinion because of the official secrets act. See report at
Cetacean Society International http://elfi.com/csiupdat.html#atoc This is
not an isolated case others have been reported and over the weekend of
March 1st, 1998 a dead calf whale showed up off Oahu right after the Navy
had completed calibration there.

This testing, killing, maiming and harassment has been ongoing for years.
It is time for the peoples of the planet to unite. It is time to bring this
to the attention of all our brothers and sisters. It is time to put a stop
to these senseless war games and fear mongering by our establishments.
Email, fax and phone your protests to the media, your local
environmentalists and politicians NOW!

By way of completion:

Last Saturday as part of the trip the captain asked me if the group would
be OK with trying to find the Navy vessels so we could swim in the waters
and possibly halt the testing. I knew that would be OK with me and possibly
with the others.

But nature and the whales had another vision on store for us. Instead we
were shown the richnss of the whales in their natural habitat. In fact
their demonstration of life was unbelievably incredible. We left Kona and
headed north and as soon as we exited the harbor we saw a whale breach. As
we headed north we came across and mother and a calf breaching. It was as
though she was teaching her new one the joy of rising out of the water and
taking a look around. After watching them play for an hour or more we saw
two whales on the horizon breachig time after time.

We headed off towards them and their behaviour changed to one of courtship
and mating with their long fins slapping time and time again into the
water. By this time we realized the water was full of whales that day! We
lowered a hydrophone into the water listened to their sounds and possibly
for the LFAS sound. But we only heard the whales whelping and hooting. I
had decided to go for a swim with a couple of my friends and we slipped
into the water knowing that there might be a whale close by.

The previous week we had gone out and hardly saw any whales. At one point
we lowered the hydrophone into the water and there were two males singing
the most beautiful song. We recorded their song while we took a swim and I
was playing diving down deep and floating to the top with my arms
outstretched and my heart open. It was beautiful and the photographs came
out perfect!

Any way as we slipped into the water we swam in formation with our hearts
open and full. We were about 25 feet away from the boat when suddenly a
whale breached and arched her back with her fins wide open her heart
towards us and the boat behind. We, however, did not see anything as she
came up once and then came up again as if to say your heart is open I can
feel you, my heart is open I acknowledge you. Our friends on the boat were
besides themselves, not with fear but with happiness and joy. We had been
preparing in meditation and healing sessions for this encounter, and we
were rewarded. We have yet to see if the photos came out!

Later in the day we saw two males doing their territorial thing and as it
were wrestling with the other. They breached out of the water and back in
again jostling the other of their kingdom. I learnt or relearnt something
very important. I had become burnt out from working the web site for the
LFAS and trying to stay abreast of all that was going on. I was reminded
that there is a peaceful way of changing our world.

The Bottom Line, we need resources:



•A network of people to watch out for the Navy Vessels •About $2000 to
purchase of a small boat. •Living Expenses for the Marine Mammal Institiute
Swimmers willing to be put out in the water •Swimmers willing to go out
>from the shore •Walkie talkies and marine radios for communication •Any one
with good reportage skills who can keep preparing news reports from the
local papers and the TV so we can post it on the internet site and keep the
world informed •Pilot that can go aloft and give us information



What can you do?

The time is NOW. Send this email to everyone you know.

And send protests to the media, your local politicians and enviromentalists
gropups.

In the header of your email or fax put "Whales: Dead or Alive" And words to
the effect:

Please stop to the killing of the whales by the US Navy in Hawaii Signed:
Your name

Send to:

President Bill Clinton president at whitehouse.com

Vice-President Al Gore vicepresident at whitehouse.com

Govenor of Hawaii: Ben Cayetano gov at aloha.net phone 808.586.0034 fax
808.586.0006

State Senator: David Tarnass reptarnas at capitol.hawaii.gov phone
808.586.8510 fax 808.587.0390

Dept Land and Natural Resources State of Hawaii Chairman Mike Wilson
mwilson at pixi.com phone 808.587.0400 fax 808.587.0390

Joseph Johnson Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (703) 919-8959
Email:Jsquared at nosc.mil Also:"Williamson, Richard"
<williamr at spawar.navy.mil>

Senators: Danial Inouye senator at inouye.senate.gov DC fax 202.224.6747
Honolulu fax 808.541.2549

Danial Akaka DC fax 202.224.2126 Honolulu fax 808. 545.4683

Congressmen: Neil Abcercrombie neil at abcercrombie.house.gov DC fax
202.225.4580 Honolulu phone 808.541.2570 Hono fax 808.533.0133

Patsy Mink DC fax 202.225.4987 Hono phone 808.541.1986 Hono fax 808.
538.0233

White House Office of Enviromental Quality Kate McGinty White House 1600
Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20006 phone 202.456.6224 fax 202.456.2710

National Marine Fisheries Services Office of protected species Ann Terbush
1335 East West Highway Silver Springs, MD 20910 fax 301.713.0376


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This site was prepared by Benedick Howard and is hosted by DreamWeaving
International
a site about sound, sacred geometry and stress management

Have a great 1998, the International Year of the Ocean -
Carl  :)	 http://planet-hawaii.com/sos/

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the
world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
				Margaret Mead

 	 	   Carl M. Stepath, Executive Director
	       "Save Our Seas"  P.O. Box 1437, Paia, HI 96779 USA
		       808-579-6282, fax 579-6283