132
Walter Munk
The Indian Ocean storm was nothing compared to the storm of protest we
encountered upon our return. HIFT had been widely publicized under the unfortunate
slogan “The shot heard around the World.” It caught the attention of the public,
but also the attention of the environmental community (Figure 8.6b). On 22 March
1994 an article on the first page of the Los Angeles Times suggested that the ATOC
transmissions could lead to the death of 250,000 California gray whales. In part this
was based on a misunderstanding (195 dB corresponds to 250 watts of acoustic power
in water and 250 million watts in air; two months later a correction was published,
again on the first page).
Spindel headed the effort to install two bottom-mounted sources; one on Pioneer
Seamount off the coast of California, the other off the north coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The
Pioneer source was authorized in July 1995 and started transmissions in December.
The Kauai source was authorized in February 1996 and started transmissions in
October 1997. When the approvals were finally issued, they placed control of the
sources under the ATOC Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP). Climateoriented research was to be subordinate to studies relating to the effects of sound on
marine life. These included a broad array of issues: aerial surveys of marine mammal
distribution, elephant seal tagging, playback studies to humpback whales, undersea
acoustic recordings to determine changes in humpback vocalization, and so on. None
of the studies found any overt or obvious changes. Statistical analysis revealed small
changes in the behavior of humpback whales in response to the playback of ATOC-like
sounds. The conclusion was that these minor changes would not adversely impact the
survival of an individual whale or the North Pacific humpback population.
The end of the period found us with the required permits, but exhausted financially and emotionally. We had attended dozens of hostile public meetings in the
unaccustomed role of fighting legal and public relation issues. The Scripps Institution
had hired private guards in response to incoming threats. I had the opportunity of
briefing Vice President Gore who on a number of subsequent occasions would introduce me (jokingly I hope) as “here comes the whale killer.” John Potter
25 has written
about “ATOC: Sound Policy or Enviro-vandalism? Aspects of a modern media-fueled
policy issue.” Jim Lynch of Woods Hole has written a detailed account (unfortunately
unpublished) of this difficult period. But there was a good side: we had been exposed
to fascinating new problems and forcefully reminded of the unity of the oceanographic
sciences.
Still there was significant progress in the physical sciences. Acoustic tomography, though a specialized technique, had touched many branches of physical
oceanography. Reciprocal transmissions made it possible to separate barotropic from
baroclinic tidal currents with unequaled accuracy. In 1995 Dushaw et al. discovered
a northward traveling baroclinic M 2 tide that was phase-locked to the surface tides
over the Hawaiian Ridge 2000 km to the south.
26 This was subsequently confirmed
by satellite altimetry and has been the starting point of the ongoing Hawaii Ocean
Mixing Experiment (HOME).
Walter Munk
The Indian Ocean storm was nothing compared to the storm of protest we
encountered upon our return. HIFT had been widely publicized under the unfortunate
slogan “The shot heard around the World.” It caught the attention of the public,
but also the attention of the environmental community (Figure 8.6b). On 22 March
1994 an article on the first page of the Los Angeles Times suggested that the ATOC
transmissions could lead to the death of 250,000 California gray whales. In part this
was based on a misunderstanding (195 dB corresponds to 250 watts of acoustic power
in water and 250 million watts in air; two months later a correction was published,
again on the first page).
Spindel headed the effort to install two bottom-mounted sources; one on Pioneer
Seamount off the coast of California, the other off the north coast of Kauai, Hawaii. The
Pioneer source was authorized in July 1995 and started transmissions in December.
The Kauai source was authorized in February 1996 and started transmissions in
October 1997. When the approvals were finally issued, they placed control of the
sources under the ATOC Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP). Climateoriented research was to be subordinate to studies relating to the effects of sound on
marine life. These included a broad array of issues: aerial surveys of marine mammal
distribution, elephant seal tagging, playback studies to humpback whales, undersea
acoustic recordings to determine changes in humpback vocalization, and so on. None
of the studies found any overt or obvious changes. Statistical analysis revealed small
changes in the behavior of humpback whales in response to the playback of ATOC-like
sounds. The conclusion was that these minor changes would not adversely impact the
survival of an individual whale or the North Pacific humpback population.
The end of the period found us with the required permits, but exhausted financially and emotionally. We had attended dozens of hostile public meetings in the
unaccustomed role of fighting legal and public relation issues. The Scripps Institution
had hired private guards in response to incoming threats. I had the opportunity of
briefing Vice President Gore who on a number of subsequent occasions would introduce me (jokingly I hope) as “here comes the whale killer.” John Potter
25 has written
about “ATOC: Sound Policy or Enviro-vandalism? Aspects of a modern media-fueled
policy issue.” Jim Lynch of Woods Hole has written a detailed account (unfortunately
unpublished) of this difficult period. But there was a good side: we had been exposed
to fascinating new problems and forcefully reminded of the unity of the oceanographic
sciences.
Still there was significant progress in the physical sciences. Acoustic tomography, though a specialized technique, had touched many branches of physical
oceanography. Reciprocal transmissions made it possible to separate barotropic from
baroclinic tidal currents with unequaled accuracy. In 1995 Dushaw et al. discovered
a northward traveling baroclinic M 2 tide that was phase-locked to the surface tides
over the Hawaiian Ridge 2000 km to the south.
26 This was subsequently confirmed
by satellite altimetry and has been the starting point of the ongoing Hawaii Ocean
Mixing Experiment (HOME).