Whale Experiment Aid To Anti-Submarine Research

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29726, 20 January 1962, Page 13

Whale Experiment Aid To Anti-Submarine Research

Tossing an electronic saddle astride a whale is the latest idea in anti-submarine warfare research. Because whales can go deeper than most submarines, they are particularly interesting to marine biologists, electronics engineers, and other anti-submarine warfare specialists. Mr W. V. Kielhorn. manager of the LockheedCalifornia Company’s antisubmarine warfare and ocean systems technology division, says a tiny sonar transmitter attached to a whale’s back “could tell us many things we would like to know. “We could learn a lot from a whale’s underwater habits and his diving tracks.” he said. Data gathered from the experiment. now in the planning stage, would be added to the information gained in the company’s anti-submarine warfare research programme, on. under and above the sea The company’s strategy is to plant miniature electronic eear on the back of a surfaced whale from a small plane. Scientists on the company’s floating marine laboratory, the Sea Quest, will follow the whale and record the electronic feedback. 1000 ft Down Mr Kielhorn said sperm whales reach dep’tis well in excess of 1000 ft. Their skeletons, entangled in ocean cable, have been brought up from such depths. "We do not know too much about it.” he said, “but we think possibly they rake the bottom with their big lower jaws and snag the cable that way. Caught in the cable, they die for lack of air.

“Less is known of the baleen whale’s diving habits. An attached noisemaker would make it possible to trail the animal in three dimensions.” The Sea Quest is scheduled to enter Scammon’s lagoon, Baja, California, this month to conduct . preliminary studies on sound emission by the Pacific grey whale. The tagging experiments are planned for later this year.