Powerful sonar and the limits of a close-range claim

Could powerful sonar affect people inside a submarine, and can it harm whales?

The crew-effect suggestion is challenged and left conditional on extreme power and close range; harm to whales is acknowledged briefly without a detailed explanation.

Alex Clarke raises the possibility that sufficiently powerful sonar could affect people inside a submarine. Another panelist challenges the power needed to transmit that effect through a modern hull. The reply restricts the idea to unusually close ranges and refers to a calculation discussed with a physicist, without presenting it. A separate audience question concerns harm to whales, which the panel associates with frequency. These brief exchanges leave the proposed crew effect unverified and provide no basis for treating it as an established operational capability.