Sonar pinging when scuba diving

The noise of US Navy Deep sea sonar target practice while diving. It got so loud you could hear it on the boat. One of our divers briefly managed to record it. In the tongue of the ocean. Bahamas. Footage didn't record the super loud bits unfortunately.

Follow me on instagram:

[Hairysteed]

A submarine pinging a sonar is like a perfectly concealed sniper popping up and shouting from the top of his lungs: "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

[ChadSinden]

Yes it was AUTEC. We drink beer with them and their base is next door to us. Its probably why there is no marine life here unfortunately.

[RyderSchäfeir]

was diving with some buddies in hawaii not too long back, when we heard it, it just about scared the crap out of us lol, luckily we had a navy buddy along and he explained it in detail.

[KD-mmli]

GAWD that sounded like my home smoke alarm going out of battery.

[ChadSinden]

Thanks for the comments. Certainly interesting. Out of interest, 50 meters to the left of the divers is a 1000 meter drop off. Edge of tongue. Great fun.

[richardcain]

As an ex Navy destroyer sonar tech, it's common for a warship to "ping" when bubbles are spotted in the water. If they didn't, underwater divers could attach explosives to the hull. 300 + dead American sailors. Like it, don't like it, it's the reality.

[bbob]

It's 216 decibels per ping that's death above water

[TheHistorySailor]

Good old AUTEC range in the Bahamas, USN and RCN train a lot in that spot for anti submarine warfare. When you see 2-3 surface warships in that area there are 2-3 or 4 subs below.

[GordonGarvey]

This has probably been thought of before but since the only sonar commonly used is passive, couldn't a very small and fast moving sub be deployed by a larger one which pings like mad at a distance from its mothership and relay back the information to the same?

[bloodasp]

if you were in the bahamas, at teh tounge of the ocean, it fairly well could of been AUTEC, they have a base there.

[FwlPlay]

No wonder whales hate that shit. Its a scary sound thats fucking deafening.

[kolsen]

Give the operator something to listen to... Bang on your tank with your knife hilt. Extra points if you know morse code.

[FUBAR_JONNY]

They most likely were hearing this sound from a ping coming from the SOFAR layer of the ocean. "In the deep ocean at mid-latitudes, the slowest sound speed occurs at a depth of about 800 to 1000 meters. This is called the sound speed minimum. The sound speed minimum creates a sound channel in which sound waves can travel long distances." The U.S. Navy found this during WWII while hunting for enemy subs. You just learned something new today!

[sockswws]

god being underwater when sonar goes off would suck

[Klaus_Klavier]

I have thalassophobia if I were to hear this shit and know it was coming from a 400foot warship cruising around under the water I'd be terrified of the idea of seeing such an imposing thing hanging around or coming close. It would be cool but I'd totally shit a brick - the sound alone is haunting

[RhodeIslandWildlife]

...and now you know why dolphins and whales are beaching themselves.
They are essentially rendered blind by sonar bursts a thousand times louder then anything they were designed to encounter.

[DeborahRosen]

It's incredibly painful to be on the ship that's pinging. Anytime my destroyer would start that testing I found double hearing protection and got as high up in the ship as I could. It wasn't enough. I'm not sure climbing the damn mast would have been enough. I cannot imagine actually being in the water with that shit going off: there's a reason Navy ships secure all sonar testing anytime divers are in the water or someone goes overboard. (They've also started securing it when marine mammals are known to be in the area, which is a good start but not nearly enough since they don't always show themselves.)

[GreekPiranha]

they are cavitating heavily so whatever is pinging have them spotted!

[poorbrokeguitarist]

If you got pinged by naval sonar at best you would be sickened at worst killed. This is most likely commercial sonar.

[satyris]

Aww I was kind of expecting the Red October to come out of the murky depths!