'This Is Lethal Damage'

'This Is Lethal Damage'

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Story Published: Oct 1, 2003 at 10:16 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:11 AM PDT

By Tracy Vedder

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WESTERN WASHINGTON - Many people heard loud, high-pitched, screeching noises last May when the USS Shoup conducted sonar exercises in Haro Strait, in the north end of Puget Sound.

Residents in the San Juan Islands used underwater microphones to get a good listen. Divers in the water off Victoria, B.C didn't need any microphones, they could hear the sonar blasts as plain as day.

"Navigation of mine fields is critical," explained Naval Commander Arnie Lusis. "Mines are cheap and just about everyone in the world has got them and they are very easy to deploy."

But during those sonar training exercises cameras on San Juan Island caught killer whales behaving strangely.

Then, more than a dozen harbor porpoises washed ashore and some of them were bleeding from the eyes.

State legislators want to know is the Navy sonar is responsible? They held a hearing Wednesday to try and get some answers.

Representative Mike Cooper says, "Puget Sound is Washington waters, it belongs to the people of Washington State and we ought to have a say in the management of that waterway."

The National Marine Fisheries examined most of the porpoise bodies in July but hasn't released any results yet.

Orca advocates say it's past time for the Navy to take responsibility and change where and how it uses sonar.

"This isn't just annoyance, this isn't just a bother that might make them avoid an area for an hour or two," said Howard Garrett. "This is lethal damage to their internal organs and their senses."

Legislators didn't expect, and didn't get any final answers from this hearing. But they put it on the record the state is concerned about Navy sonar in Puget Sound, and the state isn't going to let the Feds make all the decisions about what happens here.

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