In times of war, are heavily-mined areas littered with carcasses of whales and large fish?
Can one design (or have they already designed) mines in such a way that they are triggered by ships and submarines, but not by large marine wildlife?
To what degree are mines, as opposed to deliberate hunting, responsible for the decline in whale populations? Are Greenpeace and other environmental/animal-rights groups missing out on a hitherto neglected aspect of their save-the-whales campaigns?
Mines can have contact fuses, acoustic fuses, pressure fuses, magnetic fuses and detonation by remote control. The stereotypical mine (spiked ball) is covered with contact triggers.
Seriously though. The oceans are huge and whales and mines are not very likely to hit each other. And if they do it’s unlikely anyone will be around to observe it.
Mines are usually carefully placed to kill ships, or just keep them out of an area, which means they aren’t all over the place, and of course to kill ships they have to be at or near the surface. So even if a whale happens to be where the mines are, it’s fine as long as it’s not comming up for a breather.
They can also be used to kill submarines, in which case they may be tethered well under the surface.
See Destination Tokyo for a Hollywood depiction of a submarine traversing a minefield. Special mine-detecting sonar sets were developed and installed on American submarines.
I’d think that a whale could use its sonar to avoid bumping into mines.
