Whale Migration Sonar Imagine yourself in Baja California lying on the beach and along the horizon watching the first gray whale break the surface and launch into the air. I have personally seen it and it is a life changing experience. A whale of that size can truly take your breath away. Every year in winter the whales migrate over 6,000 miles just to mate in the warmer waters of the tropics. While it's amazing to see them arrive, the journey isn't easy for them. Whales rely heavily on hearing and use sounds to find food, friends, their mate, and even orient themselves throughout their lives. The fact of the matter is that human-made sounds are destroying the hearing of these migrating whales, thus throwing them off course. The use of sonar (Sound Navigation And Ranging) on ​​military vessels, submarines and other vessels should not be permitted during migration periods in order to save whales in any ocean and keep them on course during migration. Sonar is used on boats and submarines to be able to navigate through any ocean. The use of sonar benefits submarines because the sound waves produced by sonar travel through the ocean floor revealing objects that obstruct the path and send this information to the submarine. Some systems operate at more than 235 decibels, producing sound waves that can travel across tens or even hundreds of miles of ocean (deadly sounds). This shows us how powerful these sound waves can be. The sound of sonar is only beneficial to humans, and marine mammals such as whales are harmed. The sounds produced can throw off their hearing and disorientate them during migration just because they are trying to get away from this deadly noise. The sound waves are reaching a peak... middle of paper... The use of sonar has directly impacted the melon-headed whale and has indirectly harmed the whaling industry because the use of sonar has killed hundreds of melon-headed whales that might have been seen on an average whale watching trip. While whale watching is spectacular to watch, let's go deeper with the affects sonar has on the environment. Sound Navigation and Ranging has a whaling warrant for whales and has accounted for more than “Deadly Sounds” cited in the work. Council for the Defense of Natural Resources:. NP, Oct. 6, 2008. Web. Nov. 14, 2013. “Navy training hits marine mammals with harmful sonar.” Justice of the earth. Np, ndWeb. November 15, 2013. Black, Richard. “Whale watching 'worth billions'” BBC News. BBC, 23 June 2009.Web. November 16, 2013. Wildlife Conservation Society. “Mass whale strandings attributed to sonar mapping for the first time.” ScienceDaily, 25 September 2013. Web. 16 November. 2013.