Models Under Development Could Help Navy Avoid Whales During Future Sonar Tests, Professor Says
"The models we're developing will allow the Navy to predict whether or not whales are likely to be in testing areas on days when sonar tests are planned," says Andrew Read
Scientists cannot yet say if military sonar played a role in the recent whale strandings on the North Carolina coast, but Duke University biologists are developing scientific models that could help prevent such problems in the future.
"The models we're developing will allow the Navy to predict whether or not whales are likely to be in testing areas on days when sonar tests are planned," said Andrew J. Read, the principal investigator on a Strategic Environmental Research Development Program-funded study to model where different species of marine mammals are likely to be found in the Atlantic Ocean.
Read is the Rachel Carson Associate Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
His models use historical data - “ including water temperatures, underwater topography and other physical measurements “- to create a set of environmental parameters the Navy can use to predict animals' presence in a future testing area.
At least 37 whales stranded themselves and died along North Carolina's Outer Banks on Jan. 15 and 16, just after Navy vessels on a training exercise used sonar in waters about 240 nautical miles from Oregon Inlet.
"There is a coincidence in time and space, but we can't say for sure yet whether or not military sonar played a role," Read stressed.
Most of the stranded animals were pilot whales that beached near Oregon Inlet. A minke whale also beached that day, about 60 miles north of Oregon Inlet, and two dwarf sperm whales were found the following day on a beach about 60 miles to the south.
"To have three species beaching at the same time is highly unusual and would make one suspect that an external factor was involved," Read said. Sonar is a possibility, he said, but it's not the only one. Big storms, underwater soundings used during oil exploration or other factors could be to blame.
Read, based at the Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C., at the southern tip of the Outer Banks, was among the first scientists to reach the beach at Oregon Inlet after the strandings were reported.
"We got there just before dusk and were racing up and down the beach trying to tag all the dead whales and assist the veterinarians who were attending to the ones that were still alive," he said. "Despite the difficult conditions, it was a very well-coordinated effort.
"Analysis of tissues collected from the dead whales may help determine what the cause of death was," he added. "The Navy is being forthcoming about what they were doing in the area, and that information will help us determine what factors may have caused the strandings."
Scientists from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington Department of Biology, the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the Virginia Aquarium and the National Aquarium in Baltimore also took part in the whale-rescue effort. The National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory in Beaufort coordinated the effort.
Read is a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission, the committee of scientific advisors of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and the Cetacean Specialist Group of IUCN, the World Conservation Union.
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