Stop Capturing Whales and Implanting Them with Invasive Electrodes

Target: Admiral Michael M. Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations

Goal: Demand the US Navy stop funding cruel and stressful sonar nosie experiments on minke whales.

Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises rely on sound for all aspects of life. These cetaceans use sound to communicate, locate food, family, and mates, and to perform basically all other tasks. For the past few years, researchers from the United States and Norway have put these magnificant animals in danger in order to study how they might react to naval sonar and noise from oil and gas expansion.

The experimental procedure involves setting up nets that span about a mile to intercept migrating herds of minke whales and coerce them into a small enclosure. From here, each of the captured whales is forced to move into modified salmon cages clamped between two rafts. Frightened whales then have electrodes implanted beneath their skin to measure the whale’s brain response to “auditory evoked potentials” by way of noise from seismic activity of oil and gas companies. Following this phase of testing, blood samples are taken and whales are tagged for tracking. This strenuous ordeal may take upwards of four days for any individual whale.

Despite being met with much public opposition–even from other scientists and wildlife experts–these cruel experiments are still going on. These experiments have repeatedly failed, yielding no usable results, and succeed only in subjecting these intelligent animals to extreme stress and trauma. Sign this petition to demand the US stop contributing to the unnecessary torture of minke whales and other cetaceans.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Admiral Gilday,

The US Navy’s funding of sonar noise experiments has jeopordized the lives and wellbeing of dozens of minke whales. Interrupting whales’ migration so that you can forcible coerce them into tiny cages and implant electrodes into their skin is completely disruptive, and the entire process is extremely stressful for all whales involved. All this, so that you can be cleared to produce as much noise as you possibly can.

Whales and other cetaceans depend on sound. These marine mammals use sounds to communicate with one another, to locate food, friends, family, and mates, to detect objects and barriers, and pretty much everything else. These experiments have repeatedly failed, and seem only to succeed in subjecting minke whales to trauma.

We are asking you, Mr. Gilday, to stop funding this ridiculous, unfruitful research and leave whales alone.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute