April 7 & 8 evening and early morning navy sonar activity in Haro Strait

Anybody listening to the OrcaSound hydrophone last night would've heard some pretty strange sounds including an 'electronic' sounding voice saying serials of numbers and then pinging. According to Jeane Hyde's report on her blog Whale of a porpoise the sounds continued for over 8 hours (check out the entire play of events on her blog).

Bellingham Coast Guard confirmed that the sounds last night likely came from a U.S. Navy submarine similar to this one

Initially there was the electronic voice reading a series of numbers, then silence and then the pinging began. Nobody was aware that a navy exercise was supposed to be happening and no ships were seen in the Strait at the time. It is likely it was a U.S. Navy Submarine and when Jeane finally got in contact with the Bellingham Coast Guard this was confirmed.

Orca Sightings network listserv email reported many marine mammals in the area throughout the day inluding Transient killer whales (Orcinus orca), a minke whale (Baleanoptera acutorostrata), 1 or 2 gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) and porpoise (likley both Dall's, Phocoenoides dalli or harbour, Phocoena phocoena). Maybe we should be concerned?


Related blog and web posts

Whale of a Porpoise - Jeane Hyde's blog with sequence of events

Postcards from Friday Harbour - Post with info on Navy's plan to increase training around San Juan Islands

Orcinus Orca collective - with edited film of sounds from last night

Beam Reach - blog post from the organization that runs OrcaSound

John Boyd's compilation of April 7 sounds