Military Sonar Sounds

Military sonar is the fastest growing threat to the marine biological habitat. The past ten years has seen an increase in catastrophic stranding of marine mammals attributed to mid-frequency military sonar. The US Navy is also pushing a global communication system called "Low Frequency Active Sonar" (LFAS) that will ensonify up to 80% of the world oceans.

While LFAS has not caused the catastrophic strandings of the mid frequency communication sonar, we do not know what impact a system of this global scope will have on the navigation abilities of baleen whales and pelagic fish to navigate across the seas.

Meanwhile increasingly complex mid and high frequency digital communication systems are saturating the seas with sounds that have no natural equivalency. Ocean Conservation Research is working toward qualifying and characterizing these sounds for their biological impacts, under the assumption that their unnatural qualities may inflict higher impacts on marine animals than equal volume natural sounds.