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From Telegraph.co.uk

Dead Dolphins: Navy admits use of anti-submarine sonar off Cornish coast

A Navy helicopter was using controversial sonar equipment off the Cornish coast days before 26 dolphins died in a mass stranding. Officials at the Ministry of Defence admitted last night that the sonar “dipper”, designed to hunt submarines, had been used by a Merlin helicopter on training exercise.

Four days later, the dolphins beached in the shallow Fal and Percuil rivers 60 miles away near Falmouth. The mass stranding last Monday was the biggest in Britain for 30 years.

Conservation groups want a full investigation. Marine wildlife and underwater acoustics experts said loud pulses from the sonar may have scared or confused the common dolphins into Falmouth Bay, where they became disorientated. An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph discovered that the sonar was being used as part of an exercise involving the nuclear-powered submarine Torbay and a number of surface warships.

The Merlin was equipped with a mid-frequency sonar dipper known as S2089, which is winched down into the sea to detect submarines beneath the surface. Mid-frequency sonar, which transmits pulses of sound just beyond the range of human hearing, has been associated with past strandings of marine mammals.

Research by the US Navy has blamed such sonar for whale strandings. Prof Rodney Coates, an expert on underwater acoustics who has investigated the effect of sonar on whales and dolphins, said middle-range sonars were powerful enough to damage an animal’s hearing if it was close enough. “They can also have a behavioural impact that can lead them to swim into the shallower water.”

 

 

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