Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFA) is killing whales, dolphins, fish, crabs, and other creatures of our beautiful seas. In the name of national security, the military uses this form of sonar to try to detect enemy submarines at long distances. The US Navy has received federal authorization to deploy this type of sonar in 80% of the world's oceans, placing marine mammals in great peril.

• What is LFA sonar? 18 Volkswagen-sized speakers, linked together underwater, emit sonic booms into the water. Each ship's blast sends out 215 decibels—equivalent to the deafening noise produced by a Saturn V rocket at takeoff. This noise is thousands of times louder than what is considered safe for Navy divers. Even at 100 miles away, these blasts are loud enough to disorient whales, jeopardizing their survival and ability to locate their young.
• A deaf dolphin is a dead dolphin. Marine mammals navigate, communicate, and hunt using sound. Large whales navigate across the oceans using low frequency echolocation; dolphins use high frequency sonar to sense and herd their prey; humpbacks sing songs to establish their relationship with their pods. If these creatures become partially or completely deafened by active sonar, they will die.
• Whale strandings have been connected to Navy sonar. There are countless instances where Naval sonar has been used in areas where whale beachings have occurred. Canary Islands in 10/02, 18 stranded beaked whales were linked to Navy maneuvers, as were a total of 21 strandings in 1985, 1988, and 1999 (Nature, 1991, 2002). Other places were this has occurred are the Bahamas, Hawaii, Mediterranean Sea near Greece, Japan, and the Virgin Islands. Navy officials continue to deny a connection to these events.
• Alternatives to LFA already exist. The Navy has admitted that existing technology is available at a reduced cost to US taxpayers and with significantly less impact on the environment. Outlined by Rear Admiral Malcolm Fages, a US Navy Director, in a statement to the House Armed Services Committee in June 2000, there are two possible passive systems that could be deployed.

"The oceans are in stress right now and we need to assume that any of our explorations or colonization of the sea will further compromise its health," said Michael Stocker, science advisor and bioacoustician. "It's not just whales or dolphins we're concerned about, but our very own food supply" (SF Chronicle, Oct 8, 2004). Not just marine mammals, but recent studies have shown fish and crabs to be affected by noise pollution; crabs have lost legs, eggs have died, fewer eggs hatch.

Seaflow, a San Francisco Bay non-profit organization dedicated to protect the oceans from noise pollution, advocates that "the health of all living things is interdependent—whatever affects the ocean environment affects all living things. Protecting our environment and keeping the Earth's living systems in balance is critical to national security and global stability."

How can you help? Contact your Congress representatives and tell them to withdraw funding from LFA sonar and to support passive alternatives. Visit Seaflow for a sample letter. Contact city, county and state officials and ask them to pass resolutions opposing LFA sonar and to urge Congress to de-fund LFA. Write letters to news editors, tell your friends—spread the word. Join Seaflow's email alert list by registering at their website. And, of course, tax-deductible donations are always appreciated by Seaflow and other dedicated non-profit organizations to help further their work.

Life's A Beach donates $1 of every sale of our beach and ocean decor items to Seaflow in an effort to "give back" to the ocean for the beauty and bounty it gives us. We encourage other stores to join in the cause of protecting our planet.