Subject: NAVY TO BLAST WHALES (fwd)

From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 13:20:07 -0500 (EST)

http://sunSITE.unc.edu/london   InterGarden   
[email-masked]   [email-masked]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 15:50:58 -0800
From: donald trotter <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: NAVY TO BLAST WHALES

>Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 17:28:03 +0000
>From: Darby Davis <[email-masked]>

Hi Saneters!

I am forwarding this article from one of the magazines that I write for. I
realize this has little to do with sustainable agriculture but we're all
environmentalists here and this is a very disturbing subject. further
information can be obtained via Awareness magazine's website at
www.awarnessmag.com

Organically yours,
Donald W. Trotter Ph.D.
The Organic Gardener's Resource Centre

>
>Subject: NAVY TO BLAST WHALES
>X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by
>norway.it.earthlink.net id PAA29169
>
>NEWS FLASH from
>AWARENESS MAGAZINE
>As we were going to press last week, this unbelievable story came to our
>attention through one of our readers on the East Coast.  Since that
>time, we have been in contact with Mary and Lanny Sinkin of the Light
>Worker Center in Hilo, Hawaii, who have been keeping us updated as the
>events unfolded.
>Chris Reid, ICERC, Hawaii Lightspirit Foundation, has been rounding up
>volunteers, divers, swimmers, boats etc. to  challenge the Navy.  An
>amazing effort is underway to protect these wondrous creatures.
>Please read the following e-mails and respond in whatever way you can.
>E-mail or FAX everyone you know!  It is time that we stood up against
>our government officials and let them know THIS IS NOT OK!!!
>ICERC is a very small non-profit group, operating with volunteers and
>only the cash contributions they receive.  Awareness Magazine has sent
>$200 to assist in this operation.  Any contribution you may be able to
>make would be appreciated.  Make checks payable to ICERC Hawaii, and
>mail to Chris Reid, P.O. Box 1598, Kealakekua, HI 96750.  Your
>contribution will go 100% toward the efforts to stop the Navy's sonar
>testing.
>
>
>
>HELP STOP THE INSANITY!
>U.S. Navy Set To Blast Humpbacks
>Literally, as we were going to press, I received this e-mail, and
>numerous subsequent follow-ups from concerned readers of Awareness
>Magazine across the country. Since we are scheduled to go on the press
>within only a couple of hours, we have made every possible attempt to
>publish the most current information available concerning this tragic
>situation in Hawaii.
>
>FEBRUARY 24 (11:45 A.M.) - LFA Sonar (Low Frequency Active Sonar)
>testing is to begin by the Navy on February 25 off the Northwest coast
>of the Big Island of Hawaii, right in the heart of the Humpback Whale
>birthing and breeding season, and is expected to last for four weeks.
>For those of you who don't know what LFA Sonar is, please see the
>National Resources Defense Council's website [email-masked].
>In a nutshell, the tests consist of blasting whales and any other marine
>life within the area with sounds up to 230db. This is up to 100 times
>the noise of a 747 taking off. Also remember the whales' primary sense
>is not sight like us, but hearing.
>It is not an accident that the Navy has chosen that location or this
>time of year as they are specifically bombarding singing adult Humpback
>Whales with extremely loud sound to see the effects. It is intentionally
>designed to see what the disruption will be.
>The Navy only lacks a permit from the State of Hawaii Department of Land
>and Natural Resources (DNLR), whose Chairman, Mike Wilson, was to rule
>on shortly. The Navy has asked Mr. Wilson for immunity from any and all
>damage (deaths) they may produce.
>This is our one and only chance to stop or at least delay these tests
>until all interested parties have had a chance to give their viewpoints.
>
>FEBRUARY 24 (4:00 P.M.) - We are still waiting to hear the results of a
>hearing that is currently being conducted by Judge Helen Gilmore in
>Honolulu. The Animal Welfare Institute, Earth Island Institute,
>Earth-trust, and Greenpeace Foundation filed suit to seek a temporary
>restraining order stopping the tests at least temporarily.
>If the suit is unsuccessful (a very difficult undertaking at the
>eleventh hour), boats and volunteers are being recruited to go into the
>water near the Navy broadcast ship to force cancellation of the tests.
>The Navy intends to broadcast in a focussed beam at identified whales
>until the whales demonstrate evidence of distress.
>
>FEBRUARY 25 (11:30 A.M.) - The Animal Welfare Institute is currently
>organizing volunteers in Hawaii to join them in harm's way by getting in
>the water between the Navy and endangered Humpback Whales being targeted
>with ear-splitting blasts of sound. This direct action campaign will
>proceed if a requested temporary restraining order is not issued by a
>federal court today.
>The Navy is planning to start blasting singing Humpback Whales with up
>to 230db of sound along the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii
>starting Wednesday, February 25, and continuing for three to four weeks.
>(Permanent human hearing loss begins at 130db; 160db has been shown to
>cause tissue shearing.
>The Navy's plan is to test their low frequency active (LFA) sonar
>anti-submarine warfare device specifically on singing Humpback Whales by
>increasing the volume until the whales show "acute distress". The test
>is right in the middle of the breeding and calving grounds of endangered
>Humpback Whales.
>According to whale researcher, Dr. Marsha Green, also a party to the
>lawsuit, "Blasting humpback whales with sound of this intensity could
>kill them. When the ATOC sound source was tested off California, three
>dead humpback whales were found nearby. When the sound source was tested
>off Kaua'i last fall, another dead humpback was found. To use endangered
>whales as military sonar targets is a crime against nature."
>The Animal Welfare Institute has been vigorously protecting marine and
>terrestrial wildlife since 1951. International coordinator, Benjamin
>White, calls on the citizens of Hawaii to join him in forming a human
>wall of divers between the Navy and the whales, saying "The time has
>come to literally put our bodies on the line to stop this unprecedented
>sonic attack on breeding and calving humpback whales. If the United
>States Navy insists on going forward, they may well kill their own
>citizens as well as whales."
>
>
>
>FEBRUARY 26 (12:30 P.M.) - The only court action took place on Tuesday,
>February 24, when the judge denied the Temporary Restraining Order.  The
>hearing on whether to issue a Preliminary Injunction will not be held
>until next week.
>At a meeting last night, nine boat owners volunteered their boats to
>take people out of Kawaihae Harbor at the north end of the island to put
>swimmers into the water.  We also have commitments from six boats
>further south in Kona.  There will be further recruitment of boats and
>swimmers.
>The challenge is that the test area extends 20 miles off the west coast
>of the island and from the north end to the south end, which is
>approximately 100 miles.  What that means for us is that we have a
>challenge to even know where the boat is located.  Then once the boat is
>located, we have to have boats in a nearby part of the island prepared
>to go out with swimmers; for boats in Kawaihae to reach the Navy boat at
>the south end of the island, for example, would take the Kawaihae boats
>six or seven hours and is, therefore, impractical.  Anyway, we are
>trying to recruit enough boats and swimmers to be able to respond to
>whereever the boat appears.  We have a plane in the air right now
>looking for the boat.
>We have received a report from folks who swim with, observe, and
>interact with the dolphin that unusual behavior has been seen during the
>past few days.  While pods of 20 to 30 dolphin are the most common, we
>and others have sometimes seen pods of up to 200.  The report we
>received is that a superpod of up to 1,000 dolphin were observed off the
>west coast of the island.  The dolphin were organized into a very tight
>group occupying a very small area for such a large pod.  There was a
>great deal of surface activity and a great deal of chatter.  The dolphin
>appeared highly agitated and in a defensive posture.
>For those of us who have interacted with the dolphins, this report is
>not surprising.  Their level of intuitive understanding and intelligence
>is extraordinary.  They are quite likely detecting the fear vibration
>emanating from the planned Navy bombardment.  We have seen the dolphins
>swimming with the humpbacks and there are numerous reports of dolphins
>driving sharks away from birthing whales.  That they would come to the
>defense of the whales is to be expected.
>A particularly helpful insight from Mary Rose - "Many of us are holding
>a vision of this island as a healing center for the entire planet.  The
>island is already serving that purpose.  As a healing center with
>extraordinary capability to achieve healing, this center will attract
>those with the greatest challenge to be healed.  The United States Navy
>coming to this island to deliberately assault humpback whales is clearly
>a call for healing from a deeply troubled group."
>A spiritual insight from a Light Worker Center meditation this morning -
>"The Navy sound is a dissonant sound that disturbs the harmony of the
>ocean. This morning was the solar eclipse, which signaled the entering
>of a new frequency into the environment of the planet.  The dissonance
>produced by the Navy is the negative expression of this positive new
>frequency.  The broadcast of the Navy sound yesterday captured the
>attention of the humpbacks and prepared tham to receive, absorb, and
>blend the new frequency into the biosphere.  That awakening process was
>completed after the first Navy sound was broadcast.  Any further
>broadcasts are both unnecessary and reprehensible.
>Thank you to Lanny and Mary Rose Sinkin of the Light Worker Center in
>Hilo for keeping us updated as the events unfold, to our readers who
>brought this situation to our attention, and to the numerous concerned
>individuals who are prepared to put their lives on the line to stop this
>insanity.
>
>
>FEBRUARY 27 - From: "Chris Reid " <[email-masked]> To: "Darby
>Davis" <[email-masked]>
>
>Dear Darby,
>Thanks so much for your efforts in helping to "get the word out".  I
>hope that you will send me a copy of your magazine issue, once it's
>available, so that we may read the article you mention, and acquaint
>ourselves with your publication.
>Your offer of a contribution is most gratefully received.  We are a very
>small organization, and our activities are  carried out entirely through
>the sharing of personal time and resources.  You can make a check out to
>ICERC Hawaii, and mail it c/o Chris Reid, P O Box 1598, Kealakekua, Hi.
>96750.  Your contribution will go 100% toward the efforts to stop the
>Navy's sonar testing.
>I have just received a report (unconfirmed) from the Department of Land
>and Natural Resources, that the testing has been postponed through the
>weekend, and possibly into the start of next week.  If true, this is
>great news.  We will be back in court arguing for a temporary injunction
>on Wednesday, and in the meantime, can use the chance to get our direct
>action intervention plan firmly into place.  Coordinating volunteers,
>information, boats and media attention is a major undertaking, but with
>a large amount of grace, is going well.
>I will add your email address to our list, so that you will be updated
>as this situation developes.  Do not hesitate to contact us, should you
>have further questions or information to share.
>Mahalo, and Aloha!
>
>Chris Reid ICERC Hawaii
>LightSpirit Foundation
>
>E-mail Mike Wilson at [email-masked] and David Tarnas, Representative
>of the 6th District of Hawaii, at [email-masked] and
>express your concerns over this unconscionable act.
>

Donald Trotter
The Organic Resource Centre
293 Neptune Ave.
Encinitas, CA. 92024
[email-masked]
1.888.514.4004
fax- 760.632.8175

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