A high-powered military sonar, banned by the US courts because it can have potentially fatal effects on whales, is being tested by the Royal Navy in Scottish waters.
The tests are being carried out without the permission of the statutory environmental agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which has now demanded a meeting with the navy to discuss the issue. A spokes man said: 'We have previously been assured that neither the Royal Navy nor other Nato forces use Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar during training in Scottish waters, and we're unaware of any testing being carried out off the coast of Scotland.'
But the LFA sonar tested at the Royal Navy's British Underwater Testing and Evaluation Centre (Butec) at the Kyle of Lochalsh, near Skye, has been blamed for disturbing whales and causing internal bleeding and disorientation.
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