Improving management of the risk to cetaceans of US and European naval sonars

Research in the University of St Andrews (USTAN) School of Biology has estimated the exposure to sonar that causes specific behavioural responses in cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises). Severe behavioural responses to naval sonar have resulted in hundreds of lethal cetacean strandings over the last decades, and millions of cetaceans are estimated, in US Navy environmental impact assessments, to be behaviourally harassed by sonar transmissions. Our studies provide key information on the effects of sonar on cetaceans, enabling navies to effectively manage sonar use in ways that meet environmental regulations and reduce their environmental impacts. Scientific information provided by USTAN has contributed to updated operating and mitigation procedures in allied Navies within NATO, including the USA, Netherlands, and Norway. No strandings have been linked to these new operating procedures, while approximately 100 whales stranded on the UK and Irish coasts in 2018 when naval sonar was operating outside of procedures informed by the USTAN research.