Spyhopper, 1999 - no. 2

An international team of scientists conducted a fact-finding mission in August to the site of a proposed salt-manufacturing plant in Baja California, Mexico to determine whether the facility will harm this pristine breeding ground of the Pacific gray whale. The team, appointed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), will report its findings to the World Heritage Committee at its next general assembly meeting in Marrakech in November.

Since it was proposed several years ago, the controversial plan by Exportadora de Sal (ESSA) to build the saltworks at San Ignacio Lagoon has been criticized by scientists and environmental organizations throughout the world. ESSA is a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan and the Mexican government.

San Ignacio Lagoon is a breeding ground for gray whales and is home to many endangered species of plant and animal life. The lagoon is located in the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1993.

The UNESCO fact-finding mission also included meetings with Mexican government officials, representatives of environmental organizations, and a trip to Guerro Negro to evaluate the environmental impacts of Mitsubishi's existing salt factory. Opponents of the proposed San Ignacio Lagoon saltworks presented investigators with documentation of environmental violations at Essa's Guerro Negro facility.

SELECTED EXCERPTS     UNITED NATIONS INVESTIGATES PROPOSED BAJA SALT PLANT     RUSSIA PLANS COMMERCIAL HUNT FOR BELUGA WHALES     COMMENTARY -- THE NAVY'S OPEN (?) HOUSE ON THE LFA SONAR

At San Ignacio Lagoon, the scientific team talked to local residents who could be affected by the proposed plans, including representatives of the fishing industry, tourism industry, whalewatching boat owners, and government officials.

In a separate development, the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE), at its 10th anniversary meeting, unanimously passed a resolution criticizing development of San Ignacio Lagoon and encouraging protection of the gray whale. A member of the Japanese delegation (which included a former Prime Minister and a former Environmental Minister) expressed the delegation's opposition to the Mitsubishi project. In its resolution, GLOBE, which is comprised of senior parliamentary leaders from around the world, urged Mitsubishi to stop development of the project and look for alternative sites. (source: Reuters, International Fund for Animal Welfare)

A recent agreement between Russia and Japan could lead to the first-ever commercial hunt of beluga whales. Such a hunt would revive international trade in whale meat, which has been outlawed since the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on whaling in 1986. (Although Japan and Norway engage in commercial whaling, their kill is sold only within their own countries.)

The Russian Federation State Fishery Committee has issued permits for the hunt of 200 beluga whales in the southern section of the Sea of Okhotsk. However, the Russian authorities for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have not yet authorized the trade in whale meat with Japan.

Scientists are particularly concerned about the effects of the hunt because very little is known about the status of several of the stocks to be included in the hunt. There is also much concern about the hunt itself, since beluga whales have not been hunted in Russia for more than 30 years. This could result in a mismanaged hunt by inexperienced whalers, use of insufficient equipment, and no independent observers. (source: Environmental News Network)

COMMENTARY is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect ACS policy or the opinion of the ACS National Board of Directors.

I had the opportunity to attend the U.S. Navy's Open House on the Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) system at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in August. The purpose of the event was to show the public the underwater technology the Navy plans to use to detect enemy submarines that could threaten our national security. The irony was, the public was barely invited to attend. Aside from one posting on MARMAM (the Marine Mammals Research & Conservation Discussion group on the Internet) three to four days before the open house, there was no other public notice of which I am aware.

The press wasn't invited at all but was instead provided a "media event" several hours before the start of the open house. Perhaps to avoid all those rowdy environmentalists who might show up? There was more security for this event than I've ever seen at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. It must have been a little boring for the Park Rangers. The "teeming throng" of 40 to 50 people throughout the evening was only interested in quietly and seriously asking technical questions of Dr. Chris Clark, the scientist in charge of the Scientific Research Program associated with the LFAS project.

The open house was a study in casual tension. A computer station was set up in the back of the auditorium so people could log on to see the Navy's website. A 15-minute video of mostly Discovery Channel images of marine mammals played continuously up front on the main screen where the lights were dimmed for the two to three people watching it. There were full-color posters showing the Navy's Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) ship that tows the huge speaker array through the water. Dr. Clark was the focus of attention and had people surrounding him throughout the open house. Some attendees were frankly curious, while others asked pointed questions about the physics of underwater sound and the relevance of deploying such an extremely loud, potentially lethal system into an environment already suffering from "acoustic smog". There was a Navy officer literally less than six inches from Dr. Clark at all times. One officer was overheard saying to another, "Where did all these people come from?"

The open house offered nothing new for those of us who have been involved with LFAS project since the 1997-98 experiments on blue, fin, and gray whales in California and on humpback whales in Hawaiian waters. In fact, the analysis of that research has not been completed and probably won't be "for several years", according to Dr. Clark. Yet the 400-page Draft Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (OEIS) was released on July 30 and the public, including the international scientific community, has until October 28, 1999 to make comments.

A public hearing on LFAS took place in San Diego on October 11, 1999 and there are other open houses and public hearings scheduled throughout the country. For a continually updated schedule of these meetings, visit the Navy's LFAS website at http://eisteam.home.mindspring.com. If you have questions or comments, contact Joe Johnson, the Navy's LFAS Program Manager, at (703) 477-8743; e-mail eisteam@mindspring.com.

If you don't want to plow through the Draft OEIS, request or download a copy of the 21-page Executive Summary at the above web address. If you'd like to learn more about underwater acoustics there's an excellent book entitled Marine Mammals and Noise (1998, Academic Press), whose principal author is Dr. John Richardson. In addition, an article by Dr. Peter Tyack about the Hawaiian phase of the LFAS tests appears in ACS' journal Whalewatcher (Vol. 31, No. 2, Fall/Winter 1998).

ACS is interested in this issue because deployment of a permanent, extremely loud (215-decibel), low-frequency (less than 1000 hertz) sound source could have lethal consequences for marine mammals, if not the entire ecosystem. The very lack of scientific data regarding this type of sound, and particularly its long-term effects, should preclude its use -- by anyone -- until more is known. This will take time. Something which the Department of Defense (Navy) and the Department of Commerce (NMFS/NOAA) aren't interested in granting. I wonder why?