As published in the Christchurch Press
February 19, 2015
SEISMIC TESTING
Responding to Vic Smith's suggestion (Feb.17) that perhaps the whales
actually wanted to be stranded as some kind of evolutionary stage in their
development, I would think, rather, that there could well be a
connection between the most recent seismic testing, west of the Marlborough
Sounds area, and this latest stranding at Farewell Spit, given the very
close proximity of the two.
Even if it weren't connected, it is inarguable that seismic testing is
extremely dangerous and damaging to whales and dolphins, carried out by
aiming at the sea-floor, with deafening bursts every ten seconds, 24 hours a
day, every day for weeks on end. That these creatures, with
their highly sensitive hearing and nervous systems, would be disorientated
and put off-course, is entirely to be expected.
Noelene Sanderson
Kirwee
Return to: Letters