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By Albert Gaadzikwa

ExxonMobil dismissed reports that its sonar survey machinery led to the sudden displacement of the whales, which became stranded and later died in Madagascar.

According to the independent report of a panel of scientists, a noisy technology that blasts sounds below water to map the ocean for oil is being blamed for 100 melon headed whale deaths.


“This is the first known such marine mammal mass stranding event closely associated with relatively high frequency mapping sonar systems,” said the report released by the International whaling Commission.

The researchers described a “highly unusual event” in which about 100 melon headed whales became stranded in shallow waters in the Loza Lagoon system in northwest Madagascar in May and June 2008.

“This typically open ocean cetacean species had never previously nor since been reported in this shallow tidal estuarine system, nor in any other in Madagascar,” said the study.

The culprit was named as a “high power 12 kHz multi beam echo sounder system (MBES)”operated by an ExxonMobil vessel on May 29 about 65 kilometres (40 miles) offshore from the first known stranding.

The five-member independent scientific review panel said the vessel’s operation was “the most plausible and likely behavioural trigger for the animals initially entering the lagoon system.”

The sounds would have been “clearly audible over many hundreds of square kilometres of melon headed whale deep water habitat areas.”

Oceana-the advocacy group said the findings show how dangerous the technology can be to aquatic animals.
“Seismic blasts can disturb the vital behaviours of dolphins and whales such as breathing, feeding, mating and communicating,” said the group’s vice president for US Oceans, Jacqueline Savitz.

“ExxonMobil believes the panel’s findings on the multi- beam echo sounder is unjustified due to the lack of certainty of information and observations recorded during the response efforts in 2008.”

The evidence was compiled by the International Whaling Commission, the US Marine Mammal Commission, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Exxon Mobil Exploration and Production (Northern Madagascar) Ltd, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Government of Madagascar.

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