The Sound Harpoon

The Sound Harpoon

A composite artwork depicting the despair of a humpback whale while attempting in vain to escape the pain and agony inflected upon it by modern military sonar (LFAS).

I hope to make aware with this artwork, an issue that is usually overlooked or ignored when considering and discussing the efforts to protect all the beautiful mammals of the deep. The attention on marine mammal slaughter is too often only focused on the ongoing brutality of Japanese whaling vessels, this due to the graphic nature of the images of the senseless whale slaughter.

But ponder this for a moment if you will… what fate is worse than death for a whale?

I feel the answer to this is, when a whale is suffering in such utter and complete agony as it’s own blood boils, that it chooses to fling itself from it’s ocean home and onto a beach to die slowly from dehydration… choosing to die in this manner, rather than endure another moment of torture from the man-made source of it’s agony.

How incredible the whale’s pain must be… for a whale to choose suicide as a better option.

PLEASE, take a moment to read the accompanying article by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that I have linked below to accompany this artwork. It will help to educate and enlighten you about this important issue regarding protecting the whales and other marine mammals from military LFAS type sonar. I think you will be quite surprised just how dangerous and violently harmful LFAS type sonar actually is!

NRDC – Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonar.asp

After you have read this article, then please take another moment to voice your opposition to using LFAS type sonar directly to the US Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Donald Winter, using this easy and convenient online form provided by the NRDC. Stand up and let your voice make a difference!

Tell the Navy to stop harming whales with high-intensity sonar
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_092506_a

All my own proceeds from any sale of this artwork are being donated to the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) is a New York City-based, non-profit, non-partisan international environmental advocacy group, with offices in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing. Founded in 1970, NRDC today has 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide, and a staff of more than 300 scientists, attorneys, and other specialists.

Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/

NRDC Action Fund
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/

Now a few words about the details of the artwork. Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro 8 were used to create this composite artwork. The artwork is a composite of two PD images, ironically provided by two of the governmental agencies that are contributing to the issue depicted in the artwork.

The submarine image source is a PD image courtesy of the US Department of Defense – DefenseLINK Multimedia Gallery. The whale image source is a public-domain image courtesy of NOAA Photo Library. I have provided links below for both source images.

Submarine Source Image
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/Still/2007/Navy/DN-SD-07-28560.JPEG

Whale Source Image
http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/bigs/sanc0601.jpg

I hope that both the artwork and accompanying article will enlighten you, and help you gain a new found perspective, on just one of the many issues that are currently threatening the existence of our marine mammal friends.

Thanks for the visit!

Art4Earth

The Sound Harpoon belongs to the following groups:

Complex Simplicity of Art, ***♂♥♥QUORN♥♥♀, All Things Poetic, Artistic, Philosophical, Alternative and Progressive International Art, ART ACTION UNION - CREATIVE ACTIVISM, Current Issues, Light In The Darkness, Mixed Media, PixElations - The Art of Photoshop, Safe Haven, Something To Say, The Graphic Room-Graphic and Digital Art, The Patchwork , Underground USA, Vibrant and Vivid Color and Voices for Animals Available for sale as

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