US-funded whale hearing study criticized over experiments that ‘tortured’ animals

The impact of man-made noises in the ocean — such as those from oil drilling and wind farm construction — on marine mammals has long been a subject of scientific inquiry. Researchers in Norway embarked on a study utilizing captured Minke whales to delve into this issue, but the project has encountered controversy, with animal advocates accusing the researchers of cruelty after a whale died in their care earlier this year.

“We have warned that these cruel and pointless experiments would lead to whales being killed,” said Danny Groves, head of communications with Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “No whales should have to face being bundled into a cage and have electrodes implanted under his or her skin. These experiments should be halted permanently.” 

Initiated in 2021, this study has been funded by the United States Navy, various U.S. government agencies, energy companies and other sources, with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment running the experiments. The aim of their research has been to gather a better understanding of the extent to which anthropogenic sounds affect marine mammals residing in the surrounding waters.

“What they’re doing is they’re herding them into like giant fish pens in the Norwegian fjords, then they’re catching them and putting them in a sling, and then putting electrodes under their skin and blasting them with sound and then seeing what happens,” said Meghan Lapp, a fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd.

Researchers have attempted to temporarily herd the whales within a natural body of water barricaded by nets, after which “auditory evoked potential” testing is performed on the animals, provided they are not displaying overt signs of distress.

The hearing tests involve placing electrodes on the whale to measure brain waves for up to six hours to determine how the animal might react to active naval sonar noise from the renewable energy sector and seismic exploration conducted by the oil and gas industry. Blood samples have also been taken from the whales while they are in the aquatic pen as part of a test for stress markers.

The National Marine Mammal Foundation — which has also been involved with the experiments — said this research sought to obtain “fundamental information necessary to establish scientifically based regulatory guidelines to better mitigate ocean noise exposure for baleen whales.”

“This has been a long-standing issue, this lack of information on how sensitive the hearing of these large whales is,” said the project’s principal investigator, Dorian Houser of the National Marine Mammal Foundation. “We’re trying to get the first measurements to empirically show what they hear and how sensitive to sound they are.”

A group of marine mammal scientists emphasized the need for the data this study has endeavored to collect in a letter of support to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, explaining that “the current project is groundbreaking in nature and will provide opportunities to study aspects of these animals’ biology that have not yet been explored.”

According to the Animal Welfare Institute, the U.S. government has contributed $3.7 million to fund this research, but after three years of operation, the project has yet to produce substantial data.

“They haven’t been able to actually do the study because the whales are freaking out about being in a harness and you know, being tortured,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action.

“The first year they didn’t catch any [whales]. And then the second year, they caught one of them, they got it up in the sling, and the whale was in extreme distress,” Lapp said. “So, they couldn’t do any experiments.”

“Researchers have now failed for three years to get any data, subjected several whales to the stress of being herded into a large net enclosure, and now caused the death of a whale,” said the Animal Welfare Institute, which also called on Norwegian and American authorities to “immediately and permanently shut down this project.”

Those involved with the project have explained that the whale death occurred after the animal became trapped under a barrier net and ultimately drowned due to damage to the testing facility caused by severe weather.

The incident has further prompted calls from animal rights groups for the study to be halted, as the project has been put on hold indefinitely while the incident is reviewed and the site repaired. Further tests had been due to continue through summer 2024.

“That we have now lost a minke whale before this year’s experiments have begun, due to damage caused by severe weather to the testing facility, is the worst thing that could happen,” said Petter H. Kvadsheim, the study’s chief researcher and a principal scientist with the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. “Our aim is to protect Minke whales and other baleens, and to protect them from harmful human-made noise.”

Critics of the research project have urged Norwegian and U.S. agencies to revoke permits and funding, asserting that the study was inherently risky from its inception.

Kate O’Connell, a marine wildlife consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute believes this “experiment has been an accident waiting to happen from the start, and a gross misuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars.”

Some of those opposed to the project allege that Norway, one of just three nations which still permits whaling for profit, was deliberately chosen as the research location to bypass safeguards under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act that might have prohibited certain practices.

“We continue to maintain that, if applied here, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) would not permit such takes, and that the U.S. government should not be supporting research activities that so clearly undermine the spirit and intent of this law,” a group of marine mammal experts wrote in a letter to officials within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Navy. “Norway, a country that still engages in commercial whaling, does not have an MMPA equivalent. So, despite the fact that Norway’s Food Safety Authority has issued a permit for this project, it is clear that the project will not be conducted utilizing the same standards that would be required under an MMPA permit.”

Despite the controversy surrounding the study’s methods, the data it aimed to collect is highly valuable to the scientific community. Understanding how sound affects marine mammals is crucial for experts seeking to develop measures to protect whales from the growing presence of human-generated noise in the oceans.

“They’re doing this to try to get hearing data on low frequency baleen whales because they have none,” said Lapp. “And those are the whales that are washing up dead on the East Coast since December.”

Concerns have grown regarding the potential impact of offshore wind projects on whales, particularly along the U.S. east coast, where a spike in whale deaths has raised questions. Both government agencies and renewable energy providers have acknowledged that the noise generated during the construction and operation of these turbines may negatively affect whales, although they maintain that any detrimental effects will be minimal. Still, some experts argue that further research is necessary to fully understand the implications.