Once again Cuvier’s beaked whale mass stranding, once again NATO naval exercise!

Between 1st and 3rd of April, 2014, at least 5 Cuvier’s beaked whales, one of which was pregnant, have stranded in SE Crete, Greece. During those dates, there were the tri-lateral war drill exercises of Greece, Israel and NATO’s navy using sonars.

As is known,strong and prolonged manmade sound waves, just like naval sonars, drown out the noises that beaked whales rely upon for their survival, leading to heavy injuries and even death. These excessive lethal sounds are filling their extremely sensitive ears and causing a painful death due to physical trauma and air embolism with similar effects of decompression sickness. Sonar is believed to kill them by deranging their dive patterns.

There is also concern that this group of beaked whales may become locally extinct because of the sonar-associated strandings (In 1996, Kyparissiakos Gulf, 12 beaked whales & In 1997, Greece, 9 beaked whales & many others).

How many more whales must die before navies decide to refrain from vital and vulnerable marine mammal habitats for their military sonar exercises?

During their 5th Meeting of the Parties (Morocco, November 2013) the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) have been recomended on a map the areas where sonar should be avoided in the Mediterranean Sea (Recommendation 8.6).

We demand NATO do the right thing and stop using navy sonars in the Mediterranean, one of the most important habitats of the beaked whales as has been particularly identified by ACCOBAMS.

Stop now!

For more info:

http://bit.ly/1mAA2Cd - Silent Ocean (OCEANCARE)

http://bit.ly/1rbY9Tm – Ocean Noise

http://bit.ly/1kQdF7v - WDC