Download or read book War of the Whales written by Joshua Horwitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2015 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award: “Horwitz’s dogged reporting…combined with crisp, cinematic writing, produces a powerful narrative…. He has written a book that is instructive and passionate and deserving a wide audience” (PEN Award Citation). Six years in the making, War of the Whales is the “gripping detective tale” (Publishers Weekly) of a crusading attorney, Joel Reynolds, who stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound—and drives whales onto beaches. As Joel Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas. Investigating this calamity, Balcomb is forced to choose between his conscience and an oath of secrecy he swore to the Navy in his youth. “War of the Whales reads like the best investigative journalism, with cinematic scenes of strandings and dramatic David-and-Goliath courtroom dramas as activists diligently hold the Navy accountable” (The Huffington Post). When Balcomb and Reynolds team up to expose the truth behind an epidemic of mass strandings, the stage is set for an epic battle that pits admirals against activists, rogue submarines against weaponized dolphins, and national security against the need to safeguard the ocean environment. “Strong and valuable” (The Washington Post), “brilliantly told” (Bob Woodward), author Joshua Horwitz combines the best of legal drama, natural history, and military intrigue to “raise serious questions about the unchecked use of secrecy by the military to advance its institutional power” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Download or read book Whales and Sonar written by Kristina Alexander and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report discusses litigation regarding the use of mid-frequency active sonar training exercises and its effects on marine mammals.
Download or read book Whales and Sonar Environmental Exemptions for the Navy s Mid Frequence Active Sonar Training written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Whales and Sonar written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Actions by the federal government, including the military, require the agency to consult with either the Secretary of Commerce or the Secretary of the Interior to ensure that the project is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species or result in destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat.18. [...] An exemption from the CZMA is provided within the law, giving the President the right to excuse a federal agency from complying with a state CMP if the action is in the paramount interest of the United States. [...] No such exemption shall be granted on the basis of a lack of appropriations unless the President has specifically requested such appropriations as part of the budgetary process, and the Congress has failed to make available the requested appropriations.24 After a court has ruled an action conflicts with a state's CMP, the President may find that the action is of paramount interest to the nation, a [...] The defendants include the Secretary of the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the Department of Commerce. [...] The case was remanded to the district court, with instructions from the Ninth Circuit that the injunction should be fitted to the circumstances.
Download or read book Active Military Sonar and Marine Mammals written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The deployment of active sonar by the U.S. Navy and its potential impacts on marine mammals has been an ongoing issue of intense debate; regulatory, legislative, and judicial activity; and international concern. Some peacetime use of military sonar has been regulated under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and other statutes due to concerns that active military sonars are operated at frequencies used by some cetaceans (i.e., whales, porpoises, and dolphins), and their high-intensity sound pulses may travel long distances in the ocean. There is also concern that sonar transmissions of sufficiently high intensity might physically damage the hearing in cetaceans or cause them to modify their behavior in ways that are detrimental. Although mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in several beaked whale strandings, there is scientific uncertainty surrounding the totality of the effects active sonar transmissions may have on marine mammals. This report summarizes legal and political events related to active sonar and marine mammals since 1994. Prior to the late 1990s, concerns focused primarily on the use of underwater sound as a research tool. While strandings and mortality of marine mammals, primarily beaked whales, have been observed in concurrence with mid-frequency sonar operation, additional controversy has focused on the development of low-frequency active (LFA) sonar. Environmental interests are concerned with LFA sonar because low-frequency sound travels farther than mid-frequency sound and is closer in frequency to those known to be used by baleen whales. Additional questions involve how to balance obligations of the military to comply with MMPA provisions (as well as provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act) with national security concerns. Generally speaking, concern about the environmental effects of ocean noise is now principally focused on three activities -- military sonar exercises, oil and gas exploration, and commercial shipping. This report summarizes some of the more significant recent events pertaining to active military sonar, in particular.
Download or read book Biosonar written by Annemarie Surlykke and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-19 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two groups of animals, bats and odontocetes (toothed whales), have independently developed the ability to orient and detect prey by biosonar (echolocation). This active mechanism of orientation allows these animals to operate under low light conditions. Biosonar is a conceptual overview of what is known about biosonar in bats and odontocetes. Chapters are written by bat and odontocetes experts, resulting in collaborations that not only examine data on both animals, but also compare and contrast mechanisms. This book provides a unique insight that will help improve our understanding of biosonar in both animal groups.
Download or read book Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 908 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Low Frequency Sound and Marine Mammals written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1994-02-01 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reviews the current state of knowledge regarding the effects of low-frequency sound on marine mammals and makes recommendations for research. In addition, the book describes current federal regulations prescribed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act that govern the taking of marine mammals by scientific research activities, and it recommends changes to expedite the regulatory process dealing with scientific research activities.
Download or read book Effects of Noise on Marine Mammals written by William John Richardson and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Breath of a Whale written by Leigh Calvez and published by Sasquatch Books. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ode to marine life and the natural world, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Owls This “intimate and spirited” essay collection “offers us the whale watch most of us can only dream of” as they reveal the elusive lives of whales in the Pacific Ocean—home to orcas, humpbacks, blue, gray, and sperm whales (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus). Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. The lives of these whales are conveyed through the work of dedicated researchers who have spent decades tracking them along their secretive routes that extend for thousands of miles, gleaning their habits and sounds and distinguishing peculiarities. Calvez author invites the reader onto a small research catamaran maneuvering among 100-foot long blue whales off the coast of California; or to join the task of monitoring patterns of humpback whale movements at the ocean surface: tail throw, flipper slap, fluke up, or blow. To experience whales is breathtaking. To understand their lives deepens our connection with the natural world.
Download or read book Hearing by Whales and Dolphins written by Whitlow W.L. Au and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, experts in different areas of the field provide an overview of the bioacoustics of whales and dolphins as well as a thorough introduction to the subject for investigators of hearing in other animals. Topics covered include the structure and function of cetacean auditory systems, the unique sound production system of odontocetes, acoustic communication, psychoacoustics, echolocation and models of sound propagation.
Download or read book Animal Sonar written by Paul E. Nachtigall and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first meeting on biosonar that I had the opportunity to attend was held in 1978 on the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. That meeting, organized by Professor R.G. Busne1 and Dr. Jim Fish, was my introduction to an exciting and varied group of hard-working and dedicated scientists studying animal echolocation. They are, by nature, a very diverse group. They tend to publish in different journals and rarely interact despite the fact that they all work on echolocation. When they do interact as a group, as they did in Frascati Italy in 1966, in Jersey i~ 1978, and during the meeting reported in this volume, the meetings are intense, interesting, and exciting. This volume is a composition of a series of contributed papers written to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of the echolocation systems of animals. The echolocation pulse production studies in bats and dolphins have recently been concentrated on the ontogeny of infant pulses, other studies, with three-dimensional computer graphics and x-ray computed tomography, have concentrated on finally resolving the old controversy concerning the site of dolphin echolocation click production. Much has been accomplished on the analysis of bat neural structure and function. The intense effort directed toward understanding the structure, connections, and functional properties of parallel auditory pathways and the parallel and hierarchical processing of information by the mustached bat, has lead to dramatic breakthroughs in understanding brain function.
Download or read book Active Military Sonar and Marine Mammals written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The deployment of active sonar by the U.S. Navy and its potential impacts on marine mammals has been an ongoing issue of intense debate; regulatory, legislative, and judicial activity; and international concern. Some peacetime use of military sonar has been regulated under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and other statutes due to concerns that active military sonars are operated at frequencies used by some cetaceans (i.e., whales, porpoises, and dolphins), and their highintensity sound pulses may travel long distances in the ocean. There is also concern that sonar transmissions of sufficiently high intensity might physically damage the hearing in cetaceans or cause them to modify their behavior in ways that are detrimental. Although mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in several beaked whale strandings, there is scientific uncertainty surrounding the totality of the effects active sonar transmissions may have on marine mammals. This report summarizes legal and political events related to active sonar and marine mammals since 1994. Prior to the late 1990s, concerns focused primarily on the use of underwater sound as a research tool. While strandings and mortality of marine mammals, primarily beaked whales, have been observed in concurrence with mid-frequency sonar operation, additional controversy has focused on the development of low-frequency active (LFA) sonar. Environmental interests are concerned with LFA sonar because low-frequency sound travels farther than midfrequency sound and is closer in frequency to those known to be used by baleen whales. Additional questions involve how to balance obligations of the military to comply with MMPA provisions (as well as provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act) with national security concerns. In 2003, Congress passed P.L. 108-136, wherein §319 amended the MMPA to authorize exemptions from restrictions on harassing and otherwise taking marine mammals for "national defense." Generally speaking, concern about the environmental effects of ocean noise is now principally focused on three activities -- military sonar exercises, oil and gas exploration, and commercial shipping. This report summarizes some of the more significant recent events pertaining to active military sonar, in particular.
Download or read book War of the Whales written by Joshua Horwitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-07-21 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joel Reynolds, a crusading attorney, and Ken Balcomb, a marine biologist, teamed up to expose the truth behind a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound and drives whales onto beaches.
Download or read book Becoming Wild written by Carl Safina and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 "In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different."—The Washington Post New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina brings readers close to three non-human cultures—what they do, why they do it, and how life is for them. A New York Times Notable Books of 2020 Some believe that culture is strictly a human phenomenon. But this book reveals cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth’s remaining wild places. It shows how if you’re a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too come to understand yourself as an individual within a particular community that does things in specific ways, that has traditions. Alongside genes, culture is a second form of inheritance, passed through generations as pools of learned knowledge. As situations change, social learning—culture—allows behaviors to adjust much faster than genes can adapt. Becoming Wild brings readers into intimate proximity with various nonhuman individuals in their free-living communities. It presents a revelatory account of how animals function beyond our usual view. Safina shows that for non-humans and humans alike, culture comprises the answers to the question, “How do we live here?” It unites individuals within a group identity. But cultural groups often seek to avoid, or even be hostile toward, other factions. By showing that this is true across species, Safina illuminates why human cultural tensions remain maddeningly intractable despite the arbitrariness of many of our differences. Becoming Wild takes readers behind the curtain of life on Earth, to witness from a new vantage point the most world-saving of perceptions: how we are all connected.
Download or read book Marine Mammals and Noise written by W. John Richardson and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many marine mammals communicate by emitting sounds that pass through water. Such sounds can be received across great distances and can influence the behavior of these undersea creatures. In the past few decades, the oceans have become increasingly noisy, as underwater sounds from propellers, sonars, and other human activities make it difficult for marine mammals to communicate. This book discusses, among many other topics, just how well marine mammals hear, how noisy the oceans have become, and what effects these new sounds have on marine mammals. The baseline of ambient noise, the sounds produced by machines and mammals, the sensitivity of marine mammal hearing, and the reactions of marine mammals are also examined. An essential addition to any marine biologist's library, Marine Mammals and Noise will be especially appealing to marine mammalogists, researchers, policy makers and regulators, and marine biologists and oceanographers using sound in their research.
Download or read book Animal Sonar Systems written by R. Busnel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 1097 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen years have gone by since the first international meet ing on Animal Sonar Systems was held in Frascati, Italy, in 1966. Since that time, almost 900 papers have been published on its theme. The first symposium was vital as it was the starting point for new research lines whose goal was to design and develop technological systems with properties approaching optimal biological systems. There have been highly significant developments since then in all domains related to biological sonar systems and in their appli cations to the engineering field. The time had therefore come for a multidisciplinary integration of the information gathered, not only on the evolution of systems used in animal echolocation, but on systems theory, behavior and neurobiology, signal-to-noise ratio, masking, signal processing, and measures observed in certain species against animal sonar systems. Modern electronics technology and systems theory which have been developed only since 1974 now allow designing sophisticated sonar and radar systems applying principles derived from biological systems. At the time of the Frascati meeting, integrated circuits and technol ogies exploiting computer science were not well enough developed to yield advantages now possible through use of real-time analysis, leading to, among other things, a definition of target temporal char acteristics, as biological sonar systems are able to do. All of these new technical developments necessitate close co operation between engineers and biologists within the framework of new experiments which have been designed, particularly in the past five years.
