Hundreds of dead fish and other marine life washed up at Montagu Foreshore yesterday, baffling fishermen and environmental officials alike. The young fish littered the shoreline. There were varying species, including snappers, barracudas, minnows, needlefish, puffer fish and even an octopus. Spokesperson for the Montagu Vendors Association Sherlin Brown said he just wanted to know what was going on. “I’ve never seen this before,” Brown said. “It isn’t normal

Related: Researchers Seeking Answers About Beaked Whales and Sonar in Bahamas - The second year of a multi-year Controlled Exposure Experiment (CEE) in the Bahamas is gearing up for field work on the Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), which boats a 600 square mile grid of undersea instrumentation, including hydrophones, that allows researchers to track animals with far more precision than normal. But the central research involves attaching suction-cup "D-tags" to beaked and pilot whales; the tags record sound heard by the animal while also tracking their dive patterns in detail. Researchers will then play sounds that simulate naval sonar and orcas (predators of the whales), and see how the animals respond. Last year's initial field season was hampered by bad weather, and only a few whales managed to be tagged; initial results indicate some avoidance of sonar signals. One of the key beaked whale stranding events involving sonar occurred in 2000 in the Bahamas training range, but it is not yet clear what exactly triggered the event. The Navy suggests that a confluence of specific factors, including steep canyons and limited escape routes, were to blame; researchers hope to learn much more in this and future CEE experiments, to help them understand how common severe reactions to sonar may be. Beaked whales are often seen around the Navy’s testing site for mid-frequency sonar in the Bahamas, according to NOAA Fisheries acoustics program director Brandon Southall. “So we know that marine mammals and beaked whales can live where there is sonar,” Southall says. “It is not like a death ray where as soon as they hear it, they swim to the beach and strand.” Editor's note: This article, which appeared without attribution on a divers' website, is one of the most detailed overviews of the current science that I've seen. Source: Divemaster