From British daily The Independent:
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Monday, 7 April 2008
Anti-submarine sonar may have killed a group of whales found dead in the Hebrides in one of Britain’s most unusual strandings, scientists believe.
Five Cuvier’s beaked whales, a species rarely seen in British waters, were discovered on beaches in the Western Isles on succeeding days in February. Another animal from a related species was discovered at the same time.
Experts consider such a multiple stranding to be highly abnormal. They calculate, from the state of the carcasses inspected that the whales died in the same incident out in the Atlantic to the south and west of Britain, and then drifted towards the Scottish coast over two or three weeks.
The main suspect in the case is sonar, as it is known that beaked whales are highly sensitive to the powerful sound waves used by all the world’s navies to locate underwater objects such as submarines.
Groups of beaked whales have been killed, with sonar suspected as the direct cause, several times in recent years; well-documented incidents include anti-submarine exercises in Greece in 1996, the Bahamas in 2000 and the Canary Islands in 2002. In 2003, an American judge banned the US Navy from testing a new sonar after a court case brought by environmentalists to protect marine life.
See also here.
In February 2002, a dead female Cuvier’s beaked whale beached at Las Galletas, Tenerife, according to Wochenspiegel weekly.
A new study of elusive Cuvier’s beaked whales shows they can dive to nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters): here.
Dolphin charities blame Navy for Cornish beachings: here.
Whales in Australia: here.