Scientists at the UK's University of St Andrews have reported their studies of how the man-made noise from sonar caused the whales to stop foraging (i.e. feeding). Seems they confuse sonar with threats from killer whale species in all four species of whale they studied—beaked northern bottlenose, humpback, sperm and long-finned pilot whales.

That St. Andrews study meshes well with Shellenberger's recordings and measurements of sonar in use by a wind turbine vessel mapping the sea bed for a wind project.   Fleeing in a panic makes the whales vulnerable to beaching, or being struck by boat traffic.