Two dead whales have landed in Spain's Canary Islands, raising fears they may have been hurt by NATO military exercises off Morocco and that more could have died, officials said today.
The two whales arrived in the area within 24 hours and were dead for several days before their bodies drifted ashore, said Mr Tony Gallardo, environmental expert with the local government of the island of Fuerteventura, one of the Canaries, which lies only about 100 km (60 miles) off the southern Moroccan coast.
"There is a strong suspicion that their deaths were related to the NATO exercises that finished a few days ago," Mr Gallardo told Reuters news agency.
Naval and air force units from 10 countries involving 20,000 troops and more than 20 warships took part in US-led NATO military exercises off Morocco from July 11th to 16th.
NATO officials had no comment.
The Canary Islands regional government dispatched a helicopter to search remote stretches of coastline after fishermen reported seeing something that looked like a third dead whale floating a few miles from the shore.
Fourteen whales beached in the Canaries in 2002 during multinational military exercises there. It was one of several mass strandings of whales that scientists have linked to the use of naval sonar systems.
A year later, researchers published a study in the science journal Nature that found sonar may cause a type of decompression sickness in whales and dolphins.
Scientists suspect sonar signals disorientate the mammals, forcing them to come up to the surface too quickly, which could cause the formation of damaging nitrogen bubbles in their tissue.
Military sonar systems blast areas of ocean with sound waves to detect submarines.