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Navy Sued Over Sonar’s Effects on Whales
SANTA
MONICA, Calif. (Oct.05) – Environmentalists sued the Navy on Wednesday,
claiming that a widely used form of sonar for detecting enemy
submarines disturbs and sometimes kills whales and dolphins.
The
sonar “is capable of flooding thousands of square miles of ocean with
dangerous levels of noise pollution,” according to the lawsuit filed in
federal court in Los Angeles.
The Navy settled a similar lawsuit two
years ago by agreeing to limit the peacetime use of experimental
low-frequency sonar. The new lawsuit, by the Natural Resources Defense
Council and other plaintiffs, seeks a court order to curb mid-frequency
sonar, the most common method of detecting enemy submarines.
NRDC
attorney Joel Reynolds said the group recognizes the Navy’s need to
detect enemies, and he noted that the lawsuit seeks limits on sonar
during training exercises, not in war.
“Our position is that whales shouldn’t have to die for practice,” he said.
The
environmentalists want the Navy to use harmless passive sonar –
listening for sounds made by marine mammals themselves – to locate the
animals before using mid-frequency sonar. They also want the Navy to
avoid migration and calving areas and to turn on sonar systems
gradually so that the animals have time to flee.
Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks said the Navy already is doing many of the things demanded in the suit.
The
lawsuit blames the Navy for the January stranding and deaths of at
least 37 whales on North Carolina’s Outer Banks after a mid-frequency
sonar exercise. The Navy said the exercise was probably too far away to
have harmed the whales.
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