ENVIRONMENT REPORT - U.S. Navy and Whales

ENVIRONMENT REPORT
—
January 18, 2002: U.S. Navy and Whales

By Mario Ritter

This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT.

In March of the year Two-Thousand, seventeen large ocean animals mysteriously appeared on the coast of some
of the Bahama Islands. The islands are near the American state of Florida. The animals were small whales that
live only in the ocean and cannot survive on land.

Seven of the whales died. Rescuers pushed the other ten whales back into the Atlantic Ocean. Ken¹ Balcomb
supervises² the Marine³ Mammal Survey on the Bahamian island of Abaco. He said the first whales appeared near
his research station. Mister Balcomb knew that he needed to save tissue from the dead whales to find out why
they had left the sea and died.

He cut off the heads of some of the dead whales. He then froze the heads to protect their tissue. Mister Balcomb
took the frozen⁴ whale heads on a passenger airplane to Boston, Massachusetts.

He took the whale tissue, weighing hundreds of kilograms, to Darlene Ketten. Mizz Ketten is an expert in whale
biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She used an electronic recording⁵ device to examine the whales’
heads. She found that they had suffered severe
damage and bleeding in their ears and around their brains.

The researchers decided⁶ that the whales had suffered from tissue damage caused by an extremely loud noise. The
researchers at first thought that some natural event had caused the sound. However, the incidents happened at the
same time that the United States Navy was testing an underwater listening device in the area. The device created
an extremely loud sound in the ocean.

Sound moves more effectively through water than it does through air. Sound is measured in decibels⁷. Sounds that
measure one-hundred-eighty decibels can cause tissue damage in ocean animals. The Navy’s tests created
sounds of about two-hundred-thirty decibels. These sounds were one -hundred-thousand times louder than the
level required to cause harm to ocean animals.

Scientists are not sure if the whales were killed by the sounds or if the sound-related injuries damaged their
ability to swim safely. The Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service wrote a report about the incidents.
The Navy says it has changed the way it tests underwater sounds. It also says it will spend nine-million dollars to
study ocean animals.

This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter.

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1 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

2 supervises   

v.监督，管理( supervise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The group leader supervises a dozen workers. 组长管十二个工人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He makes the wines and supervises the vineyards. 他酿酒并管理葡萄园。 来自辞典例句

3 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

4 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 decibels   

n.分贝( decibel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The typical lawn mower makes about 90 decibels of noise. 典型的割草机发出的声响约为90分贝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A normal conversation reaches 55 decibels. 普通的谈话即可达55分贝。 来自《简明英汉词典》