Dozens of beaked whales beach themselves in the Bahamas. This leads to a legal battle against the U.S. Navy. Joshua Horwitz details the story, scientists, the legal battle, and the science in War of the Whales.
It’s an uphill battle when the other side is the most powerful fighting machine on the seas. It’s an even steeper hill when you realize nearly all of the experts are on the navy’s payroll.
For decades the navy has been studying marine mammals for their speed through the water and especially their echolocation. A beaked whale’s ability to locate object underwater far surpasses anything the navy can do with sonar.
But the navy does have power. If it can’t fine tune its reception, it can turn the volume up. Way up. 200+ decibels of power that appears to drive marine mammals right out of the ocean.
The book also shows the malignant problems of regulatory capture. The National Marine Fisheries Service is supposed to oversee the environmental impact of the navy. But fails to do much bur rubber stamp cursory navy reports.
Some of the key reports end up getting dumped during dead spots, just like corporate bad news filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. One key report in the book that actually points some blame at the navy was filed at 5:30 on a Friday December 21, 2001, the last day of the federal work year and start of the Christmas weekend. There is no need to impose a media blackout, when all of the media are gone.