WP: Reference to Sonar Deleted in Whale-Beaching Report

[DeepModem Mom]

Reference to Sonar Deleted in Whale-Beaching Report
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 20, 2006; Page A09


Documents released under a court order show that a government investigator studying the stranding of 37 whales on the North Carolina coast last year changed her draft report to eliminate all references to the possibility that naval sonar may have played a role in driving the whales ashore.

The issue of sonar's effects on whales is a sensitive topic for the U.S. Navy. It has clashed with environmentalists in several court suits seeking to limit use of the technology because of its possible effects on marine mammals and other sea creatures.

The January 2005 stranding occurred shortly after naval maneuvers in the area -- which is off North Carolina and in the region where the Pentagon wants to build a controversial underwater sonar training range.

In her initial April 2005 preliminary report on the deaths, Teri Rowles, coordinator of the National Marine Fisheries Service's stranding response program, described injuries to seven of the whales that "may be indicative" of damage related to the loud blasts of sound from active sonar....

***

But before it was released by NRDC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an updated report -- by Rowles and others -- that did not mention sonar. In a cover letter to that report, NOAA officials said the initial draft that mentioned sonar "contains early information that was later found to be inaccurate."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011902990.html

[fasttense]

1. Jeez, I think I live in 1970 Communist Russia.

Where all public information had to be censured by the government.

[leftchick]

2. check my sig line

this is insanity....

[Judi Lynn]

3. Apparently its their view you have to destroy all other forms of life,

and many of our own in order to correctly defend ourselves and the military/industrial complex. Whenever you question them, you get the brain-dead charge you want to aid and abet the "enemy."

From the article:

The public record on that issue will close at the end of the month, and some activists have complained that officials are trying to withhold information about the stranding until after that time. In its court filings, NRDC argued that it was unfair to complete the hearings before information about the strandings was released.

(italics mine)

[mom cat]

4. Hello Pravda!

:hi:

[EuroObserver]

5. So, at least this issue gets some exposure, then.

It's an international issue I covered in Spanish a couple of years ago (local to me too when I'm in the Canary Islands): Time I did so again.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. How much did she get paid

and who wrote the check?

[glitch]

7. What does a soul go for these days? My guess: she got dross.

(I love Al Gore for bringing that word back into public domain.)

[dysfunctional press]

8. we are an evil species.

and we will not be missed.