The Maui News - Additional examinations of a Cuvier’s beaked whale that washed up on Moloka‘i’s south shore on Monday, July 29, have found no evidence of injury, but a necropsy team is studying the condition of its internal organs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Friday, Aug. 1. At the same time, a U.S. Navy spokesman said ships involved in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RimPAC) exercises were conducting sonar training during the three days before the whale was reported stranding itself. But the exercises were being conducted sporadically 28 miles northwest of the site where the whale stranded on the opposite side of Moloka‘i, according to Navy spokesman Mark Matsunaga.

Until there is a determination based on scientific evidence on the cause of the whale’s stranding, it would be “premature and speculative” to suggest the sonar exercises were a factor in the whale’s behavior, he said. Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing critics of Navy sonar use around marine mammals, has suggested the RimPAC sonar exercises were responsible for the whale stranding.