Secretary General and Permanent Representatives
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO Headquarters
Boulevard Leopold III
1110 Brussels, Belgium

RE: Please stop harming marine mammals with high-intensity sonar

Dear Secretary General and Permanent Representatives,

I strongly urge NATO and its member countries to stop needlessly inflicting harm on whales and other marine mammals with your use of high-intensity sonar during training exercises.

Marine mammals depend on their extraordinary hearing to navigate, find food, locate mates, avoid predators and communicate with one another. Blasting their environment with intense sound over large expanses of ocean disrupts these critical behaviors and threatens their very survival.

It is now well established that sonar can also kill whales directly. Military exercises using sonar have resulted in whale strandings around the globe, from Washington state to the Canary Islands, the Bahamas, Madeira, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Greece.

Whales should not have to die for routine military training. NATO and its member countries can no longer ignore the unnecessary harm inflicted by this dangerous technology. There are simple ways to protect marine mammals that would not hinder military readiness. I urge you to immediately adopt such common-sense measures to keep marine mammals safe.

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