War of the Whales (65 page)

3. Judge Cooper heard both the California and Hawaii midfrequency cases. The first case was filed in the Central District of California. The RIMPAC case, in Hawaii, was filed as a related case, also in the Central District, and it went to Cooper as related.

Chapter 28: The Highest Court in the Land

1. Among the four other environmental cases decided by the US Supreme Court during its 2008 term, the court ruled against environmentalists in each case, including limiting corporate liability in toxic spills, making it easier to dump mining waste in Alaska, and allowing the EPA to use a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate allowable marine life kills at cooling structures at power plants. The US Supreme Court, going back to the Rehnquist court, has been particularly unfriendly to cases brought under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ruling against the environmentalists in 15 straight cases. See also Marcia Coyle, “High Court Losses Stun Environmentalists,”
National Law Journal
(June 29, 2009).

Chapter 29: Endgame

1. Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 129 S. Ct. 365, 378 (2008), www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-1239.pdf.

2. 555 U.S. ____ (2008), 1, J. Ginsburg, dissenting, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/555/07-1239/dissent.html.

3. The
New York Times
, the
Washington Post
, and the
Los Angeles Times
all reported positive accounts that reflected NRDC’s “soft-landing” analysis. However, the
Wall Street Journal
’s lead editorial on November 13, 2008, “The Greens Get Harpooned: The Supremes Save the Navy from the Whales,” spared no mixed metaphor in gleefully skewering both “green activists” and “liberal judges”:

The Supreme Court opened its fall term auspiciously yesterday by sinking the environmental Pequod known as
NRDC v. Winter . . .

If the bureaucratic distinction between an “Environmental Impact Statement” and an “Environmental Assessment” sounds like a flimsy excuse for second-guessing the judgment of admirals in wartime—well, this case was never really about the welfare of Baby Humpback. Instead, green activists and liberal judges were looking to assert their dominance in matters of war and peace
 . . .

Epilogue

1. Diane E. Claridge, “Population Ecology of Blainville’s Beaked Whales (Mesoplodon Densirostris)” (doctoral thesis, University of St. Andrews, May 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3741. Claridge’s study compared the abundance and age composition of Blainville’s beaked whales on and off a Navy range in the Bahamas. This was the first study to compare the population demographics of beaked whales regularly exposed to Navy sonar to ones rarely exposed. The study revealed a substantially lower abundance of beaked whales on the range where MFA sonar was used regularly than at the control site, where sonar was limited. Of particular concern, the study found a lower female-to-calf ratio—in other words, fewer baby whales per adult female—at the site with military sonar. After ruling out several other factors, the author concludes that the “apparent low reproductive rates and recruitment through births on the Navy range,” together with impacts that have been observed on beaked whale foraging, present cause for concern.

2. Padraic Flanagan, “Navy Sonar ‘Did Cause Mass Dolphin Deaths’ Say Scientists Who Blame War Games Exercise off Cornish Coast for Strandings,”
Daily Mail
, May 4, 2013, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2319611/Navy-sonar-did-cause-mass-dolphin-deaths-say-scientists-blame-war-games-exercise-Cornish-coast-strandings.html.

3. “Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS Statement of Concern About Atypical Mass Strandings of Beaked Whales in the Ionian Sea,” Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Contiguous Atlantic Area, February 13, 2012, www.accobams.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1118:atypical-mass-strandings-in-the-ionian-sea&catid=3:accobams-news&Itemid=68.

4. Leonard Bernstein, “Sea-Map Sonar Linked to Whale Stranding off Madagascar,”
Guardian
, October 15, 2013, www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/15/stranded-whales-sonar-underwater.

INDEX

Note: Page numbers in
italics
refer to illustrations.

Abaco Island:

initial reports of whale strandings, 5–6, 18, 98, 130

Navy tests on north side of, 130, 132

search for stranded whales, 25, 28

whale strandings along shore of, 265

see also
Bahamas

ABC,
Wide World of Sports,
228

Acoustical Society of America, 178

“acoustic smog,” 179

Acoustic Thermometry, 164–69, 170, 171–72, 173, 175–76, 373n14

acoustic tomography, 156–57, 158–64

acoustic trauma, evidence of, 72, 128–29, 191–92, 261–62, 293

Adams, John, and NRDC, 81, 83, 167, 168

Adams, Lytle, 376n3

Adderly, Les, 23, 32, 66, 184, 185

Aden, USS
Cole
bombed in, 271

Ahab (orca), 237–38

Alaska:

beaked whale stranded in (2004), 308

Pebble Mine, 349–50

algae blooms, 71

Alito, Samuel, 332, 338–39

Al Qaeda, 271

“A Mass Stranding of Cetaceans Caused by Naval Sonar in the Bahamas” (Balcomb and Claridge), 270

Amchitka Island, bomb tests at, 227

American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), 49

Anderson, Norah, 366n5

Andros Island, Navy testing near, 15, 19, 110, 140

animal rights movement, 198, 222–24, 242, 377n10

animals, and warfare, 199–200, 238–39, 242–43, 364–65n2, 376n3

Animal Welfare Institute, 176, 222

Anspach, Bill, 25, 28, 29, 32–33

Arctic:

melting ice cap of, 160

Navy research in, 155

submarine battlespace in, 160

Arctic Right Whale
(Balaena mysticetus)
,
2

Aridjis, Homero, 93

Aristotle,
Historia Animalium,
68, 201, 375n2

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Bethesda, 105

Associated Press, 130–31, 133

Atlantic spotted dolphins, 21, 22–23, 187

Atomic Energy Commission, 368n1

AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center):

tapes of, 19, 58, 107

testing range of, 110, 140

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), dolphin drones, 241–42, 243

Azzolini, Marta, 363n1

Bahamas:

beaked whale research in, 4, 63–64, 131, 262, 284, 313

deep sound channel of, 47–49, 51, 52–53, 139, 285

evidence gathered in, 11–12, 24–25, 29–32, 56–57, 64–65, 98, 115, 183, 190, 220, 231, 256, 270, 290

flight over, 25

investigation meetings, 261–64

media stories on whale beachings, 130–31, 132–33, 149–51, 152, 222, 283–85

moving whale heads to Boston from, 184–88, 284

Navy exercises in, 115–16, 130–31, 138, 140, 141, 152, 230–31, 244, 285

separation from mainland, 26

tourist activities in, 3–4, 21, 22

whales beached in (2000), 3–13, 15, 18–19, 20, 22–23, 73, 100–101, 111–12, 130–31, 136, 151, 152, 153, 182–83, 220, 222, 230–31, 245, 252, 283, 285–90, 298

Bahamas Journal of Science,
270, 364

Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organisation, 313

Bahamas Marine Mammal Survey, 63–64, 187, 262, 284

Bahamian Ministry of Fisheries, 189

Bahrain, dolphins clearing mines in, 242

Baird’s beaked whales, 63, 101

(
Berardius bairdii
),
170

studies of, 16, 29–32, 40, 60

Balcomb, Anne (first wife), 38–39, 41

Balcomb, Barbara (mother), 35–36

Balcomb, “Blue” (father), 34–35, 37–38, 290–92

Balcomb, Camille (third wife), 59–60, 193, 211, 217–19

Balcomb, Julie Byrd (second wife), 43, 55

Balcomb, Kelley (son), 39, 41, 219

Balcomb, Ken:

beaked whale research of, 6, 7–8, 30–31, 63–64, 77, 123, 187, 262, 289

bird-banding assignment of, 42

cancer diagnosis of, 313, 352, 353

and chain-of-custody forms, 129, 185, 188, 192, 231

childhood and teen years of, 34–38

desire to be included in ongoing investigation, 129, 261, 264

and Diane,
see
Claridge, Diane

and Earthwatch, 3–5, 130

evidence gathered by, 11–12, 19, 24–25, 29–32, 56–57, 98, 131, 183, 189–90, 220, 222, 229, 231, 244–46, 256, 257, 261, 262, 268, 289–90, 310, 353–54

and Gentry, 133–34, 192, 247, 256–57, 263–64

and Gisiner, 14, 15–16, 18–19, 57–58, 77, 133, 192, 256–57

and his father, 34–35, 37–38, 290–92

and initial reports of strandings, 5–6, 18, 130–31

and interim report, 272–73, 290

and Ketten, 100–101, 103–4, 107, 126–27, 129, 134, 274

and lawsuit against Navy, 289–92, 296–97, 299–300

MARMAM posting by, 66–67, 81, 98, 111

“A Mass Stranding of Cetaceans Caused by Naval Sonar in the Bahamas” (with Claridge), 270

Navy assignments of, 43–44, 45, 48, 50–55, 131–32, 289

and Navy mine-warfare range, 350

and Navy oath of secrecy, 33, 111, 132, 230

Navy undercover work of, 33, 59, 60, 132, 153

orca census of, 4, 16, 60, 210–11, 217–20, 257, 308–12, 347

and Orca Network, 347

photographing whales, 41, 217–19, 229, 262

and press conference, 56, 222, 228–31, 246–50, 256–57, 274

reputation of, 257, 273–74

rescue attempts by, 6–13, 289–90

and Reynolds, 352–55

search for stranded whales, 25, 28–29, 280

and
60 Minutes,
229, 231, 244–46, 270

and Supreme Court case, 347

tagging whales, 40–41

and UC Santa Cruz, 15–16, 133, 202, 240, 257

and whale necropsies, 126–27, 129, 256

baleen whales:

communication of, 164, 178

ear bones of, 103

evolution of, 26

killed by whalers, 375n1

migration of, xi, 69, 178

noise pollution threat to, 367n10

Barnum, P. T., 214

Bat Bomb Project, 200

Bater, Alan:

as captive-dolphin doctor, 108

and Cuvier’s head storage, 107–9

and mass strandings, 21, 22, 101

Bateson, Gregory, 207

bats:

echolocation of, 27, 46, 199–200, 201, 224

evolution of, 27

in military experiments, 200, 376n3

navigation by, 199

Spallanzani’s bat problem, 199

Baucom, Larry, 75, 77, 130–31

beaked whales:

brains of, 31

communications of, 31

diving depths of, xi, 27–28, 293, 312

evolution of, 30, 31, 103

excluded from Navy studies, 296, 300

of Great Bahama Canyon, 4, 6, 26, 27, 31, 135, 220, 274

hearing of, 103–4, 353

MARMAM postings about, 67, 253

necropsies of, 126–29, 274, 293

photo-identification survey of, 4, 7–8, 223, 229

populations of, 6n, 350

reproductive health of, 350, 383n1

rescues of, 6–13

rostrum of, 31, 32

scarring patterns of, 7

skulls of, 31, 274

sonar sensitivity of, 142, 162, 262, 299, 314, 350, 372n13

squid as food source of, 27

stranded in Bahamas (2000),
see
Bahamas

stranded on Corfu (2011), 351

strandings in Canary Islands (1985–89), 71, 72, 293; (2002), 293–94, 298, 299, 301; (2004), 308, 314

strandings in Greece (1996), 18, 71–72, 77, 111, 142, 147, 178, 253, 296

strandings in Gulf of Alaska (2004), 308

strandings in Madeira (2000), 254, 256

as toothed whales, 27

and war games, 278–80

Beatles, 225

Bell Laboratories, 49, 51

beluga whales:

(
Delphinapterus leucas
),
197, 281

Navy collection of, 242

wild capture of, 214

“bends, the” (decompression sickness), 28, 364n4

Bernard, Chuck, 248

Bernard, Mitch, 342, 343

Bernstein, Carl, 83

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, 82

Bigg, Michael, 217, 218–19, 220

bin Laden, Osama, 271

biomimetics, 200

bionics, use of term, 200

biosonar,
see
echolocation

birds, as “avian vectors of disease,” 364–65n2

blackfish,
see
pilot whales

Blackfish
(documentary film), 352

Black Right Whale (
Balaena biscayensis
),
3

Blainville’s beaked whales:

anatomy of, 32

CT scan of, 191

decapitation of, 29–32

of Great Bahama Canyon, 4, 6, 101

local sightings of, 62–63

moving the head to Boston, 184–92, 284

necropsy of, 127

rescued at Castaway Cay, 20–21

stranded in Bahamas (2000), 10–12, 18, 28–29, 59, 66, 231, 280