Kenneth Balxom is the Executive Director and Research Biologist for the Center for Whale Research.

He has observed and documented numerous mass strandings of whales, including the widely publicized strandings in the Bahamas in March 2000 and the Haro Strait in May 2003, both following the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar. Unlike low-frequency sonar, mid-frequency soanr has already been deployed globally. The output power of a typical military system is 225-250+ decibels, enough to boil water in front of the system at maximum power. When this power is used in mid-frequency tones, the sound field is still quite powerful at very long ranges. The cetacean specimens that I have collected in the wake of these military sonar exercises consistently demonstrate bleeding in and around the ears and brain, and sometimes bleeding from the eyes. These are most likely pressure traumas. I have seen whales and porpoises swimming as fast as they can away from the sonar ship 12-20 miles away. If the ship happens to be going in the direction they flee, there is no escape the sound just gets louder and louder as the ship gets closer. And, to complicate matters, the sound field is not uniform - regions of the water mass provide more efficient conduction of the sound. Hence, with no predictability on the part of the animal, it suddenly finds itself in a sound field several times louder that one it just tried to escape. The noise can be terrifyingly loud unexpectedly. To top that off, there is the well-documented occurrence of vestibular dysfunction (dizziness, vertigo, etc.) in the presence of intense sound fields. Whales and porpoises do get vertigo. Imagine a whale, terrified and fleeing from a distant sound and then suffering a sudden and extreme bout of vertigo in a changing sound field. That is a very bad combination of events, not knowing what is up or down or toward or away from the insulting source. Military sonar-impacted whales and porpoises consistently flee, strand and bleed in the brain and ears far from sonar ships. It is simply arrogant and insensitive of humans to arbitrarily treat other animals like this. Not everyone knows about the suffering and death delivered with powerful sonar to the creatures that live in the ocean. If and when they do know, they will be outraged that our military planners have been so callous for so long. Many in the military already know of this increasing tragedy but, in the name of military preparedness, they seek exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, rather than comply with it. That, to me, is the ultimate tragedy -we know, but do not care. It could be a very black day in Congress if our elected representatives go along with environmental exemptions for the military.