The National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS), has a duty under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to regulate those who emit noise into the ocean. This includes the MILITARY, with their use of ordinance and SONAR; the oil and gas industry with their SEISMIC EXPLORATIONS; and research scientists who use seismic energy to study the oceans. The current maximum noise level that NMFS use in their authorizations is 180dB SPL.

There have been numerous MARINE MAMMAL STRANDING events that have occurred since NMFS adopted the use of the current noise criteria in 1997.
NOW THEY WANT TO CHANGE THE CRITERIA...UPWARDS!!!


Key arguments against this move are:
-Since 1997 when NMFS started using 180 dB SPL, the following strandings coincident with the use of sonar or seismic airguns have occurred: the U.S. Virgin Islands (1998, 1999), the Bahamas (2000), Madeira (2000), the Canary Islands (2002 and 2004), Baja California (2002), and the NW coast of the United States (2003);

-The US Navy guidance for human divers exposed to noise is a level of 145 dB SPL;

-According to the US Navy in their investigation into the Bahamas stranding event, the level that the whales reacted to and died was 138 dB SPL;

-Most of the scientists that are advising NMFS are navy scientists, navy contractors, or have received funding at some time from the Office of Naval Research;

-The approach used to determine the new criteria disregards the long term effects of noise, does not account for noise damage to non-hearing organs, and does not take into account recent findings that suggest that certain whales get the ‘bends’ and die as a result of rising too quickly in response to noise levels just over background;

-The noise exposure criteria that NMFS proposes using are based on very limited experimental data collected from a limited number of individuals, from a limited number of species in an unnatural environment. To supplement the data, noise exposure data from terrestrial animals (including chinchillas) have been used. These results have been extrapolated to fill in the gaps for certain groups of marine mammals or conditions for which there are no data. The noise criteria do not take into account differences between different species, let alone difference within different individuals, at different ages, and takes no account of the immeasurably different and constantly chaning marine environments, such as in shallow and deep water, warm and frigid water, in deep canyons, in high salinity.

-Over the last year, strong cautionary statements about the threat that loud ocean noise poses to marine mammals have been issued by: the European Parliament; the International Whaling Commission; the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS); the Spanish government in relation to the Canary Islands; and the World Conservation Union.

THE BELOW SIGNATORIES REQUEST that NMFS fully address the issues outlined above.

It is not acceptable to increase a noise level criteria which has already demonstrated an increasing concern for the welfare of the marine life existing in our oceans today. Any change to the criteria should be made to LOWER IT.

Your response to this is urgent as public comment is deadlined to March 4, 2005