Euro-MPs vote to ban "dolphin death" sonar
28 October 2004
Euro-MPs have voted to ban military sonar devices that are killing marinemammals and depleting already-threatened fish stocks from EU waters. MEPs inStrasbourg today adopted the proposals from Green MEP Caroline Lucas -despite attempts by UK Labour and Conservative MEPs to water them down.
MEPs also voted to establish a multinational task force to develop aworldwide treaty banning high intensity active sonars - used to tracksubmarines but responsible for the deaths and strandings of thousands ofdolphins, whales and fish - and a commission to monitor and investigatetheir effects.
Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas, whose South-East England constituencycontains key naval bases, one of the UK's largest fishing fleets andhundreds of miles of coastline, said: "There can be little doubt that thesesonar devices are responsible for the deaths of thousands of marine mammals,some of them endangered and protected species. It has been argued that theiruse is threatening entire whale populations with extinction."
"This threatens the bio-diversity of our seas and already-depleted fishstocks - according to the fishing industry itself. This ban must representthe first step towards an worldwide ban - as any ban in a limitedgeographical area will fail to fully protect migratory cetaceans."
Calls for a worldwide moratorium on the use of high intensity active sonarshave grown steadily since a 2003 article in the journal Nature linked thedevices with the deaths of thousands of marine mammals - and warned theywere driving already-depleted fish stocks away from European waters. NATOchiefs agreed last year to consider abandoning the devices in response to an85,000-strong petition - but have failed to do so.
The Nature study showed the sonar causes a condition similar to the bends indolphins and whales, causing major damage to internal organs, muscle tissueand joints, and a recent International Whaling Commission report claimedentire whale populations were at risk as a result.
High intensity active sonar devices are used to track submarines and havebeen under development for over a decade by the UK and the US. The deviceswork by bouncing low frequency sounds at very high volumes off the oceanfloor, allowing operators to spot any large objects - such as submarines -blocking the signals.
But the sounds they emit are louder than any naturally occurring marinenoises - a single sonar blast can be heard throughout 3.8 million squarekilometers of water - and have sparked an epidemic of strandings, internalbleeding, deafness and lung damage wherever they have been tested.
Calls for an EU-wide moratorium were referred to the Environment Committeelast year during a debate on whether the use of high intensity active sonardevices without an environmental impact assessment was in breach of the UNConvention on the Law of the Sea. More than 60 Euro-MPs backed calls for animmediate ban.
Parliament rejected attempts by UK Labour and Conservative MEPs to waterdown the proposals. A Conservative amendment sought to limit the ban tocertain, as yet undefined, geographically-sensitive areas - despite awarning that such an amendment would delay the measures' implementation andundermine their effectiveness, resulting in the deaths of thousands moremarine mammals.
British Labour MEPs sought - without success - to resist an EU moratoriumbut maintain support for the establishment of a commission to monitor andinvestigate the devices' effects. Their attempts to split the measures intotwo parts, to enable them to vote separately, were rejected by fellow MEPs -including their fellow socialist MEPs from other member states.
"The EU has taken the first step towards staving off a bio-diversitydisaster - the next step must be a worldwide ban. The 'Nature' study wasbased on more than 2,500 autopsies - though this could be just the tip ofthe iceberg and no-one knows the extent of the deaths", added Dr Lucas.
Note to Editors: The Nature article can be found at:www.newscientist.com
