How do dolphins and whales use sonar?

Answer 1

whales use sonar as echolocation they make sounds, which travel in the ocean and bounce of solid objects like fish so they use sonar to 'hunt' and dolphins do that a lot its like sound is their sight

Answer 2

They use an oil-filled gland in their heads, called a melon, to focus sound and send it out in a 10 degree cone for echolocation, listening for the returning echo from anything out there. This is the main purpose for their sonar, but they can also use it as a weapon by focusing the sound to a fine point, like sunlight through a magnifying glass.

Because flesh and water are very nearly the same density, sound waves easily penetrate flesh, meaning that the dolphins can see each other's insides, with their sonar, as easily as their eyes can see their outsides. How good is their sonar, you ask? From 100 yards, a killer whale (Orcinus orca) can tell the difference between two three inch iron balls that are only microns different in diameter. From 100 yards, you can't even see a three inch iron ball.

The first time my late wife, Anne, and I went swimming with wild dolphins from our kayak, they all began using their sonar on her abdomen. It didn't hurt at all, but she could sure feel it. We thought at first that she might be pregnant, but that wasn't it. She died a few months later, quite suddenly, and the autopsy showed that she had cancer of the pancreas that had spread to just about every part of her body, though she never even suspected she was sick. Cancer of the pancreas is usually a very painful way to die, but Anne had no pain at all. The dolphins could see her cancer as clearly as they could see her finger nails, but I'm convinced they were somehow responsible for the painlessness of her demise. They probably took one look and discovered she was already full of cancer and did what they could for her.

The whales and dolphins alive today may have a culture dating back tens of millions of years, and the more we learn about them the more fascinating they become

Answer 3

Sonar itself doesn't kill whales. It can be misleading though, which can lead to death. Sonar can make a whale think that the slope of a sandbar it is rushing at is open water and lead to the whale being breached and then dieing.