LA Lawsuit Claims Navy Sonar Beaches
Whales And Dolphins

Thursday, October 20, 2005
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — The Navy's most widely used form of sonar is disturbing whales and dolphins, even driving some to their deaths, according to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles, seeks a court order curbing mid-frequency sonar, the Navy's most common method of detecting enemy submarines.

The sonar "is capable of flooding thousands of square miles of ocean with dangerous levels of noise pollution" according to the lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other plaintiffs. Environmentalists say whales and dolphins have sometimes beached themselves and died trying to avoid the noise.

At a news conference, NRDC attorney Joel Reynolds said the group recognized the Navy's need to detect enemies but wants sonar used more carefully. 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 Navy refuses to use commonsense precautions in its training practices."

The Navy settled a similar lawsuit two years ago by agreeing to limit the peacetime use of experimental low-frequency sonar to specific areas along the eastern seaboard of Asia.

Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks said the Navy already is doing many of the things demanded in the suit.

"The Navy is firmly committed to the protection of Marine mammals and goes to great lengths to mitigate its potential effects on marine wildlife," he said.

The service already avoids training in areas that have large populations of whales and dolphins, looks for marine mammals in the area before exercises, and stops active sonar operations when there is a risk of harm, Marks said.

The environmentalists want the Navy to use harmless passive sonar to locate mammals before using mid-frequency sonar. They also want the Navy to avoid migration and calving areas and to ramp up sonar systems gradually so that the animals have time to flee.

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 it was unlikely the whales were harmed by sonar because the exercises were too far away.

The lawsuit also cites a May 2003 case in which orcas behaved erratically and porpoises were found dead in northern Puget Sound following exercises by the USS Shoup, a Navy guided-missile destroyer.

A National Marine Fisheries Service report found that sonar near the San Juan Islands was likely loud enough to send the killer whales fleeing.

The Navy said the whales probably were not affected by the sonar.

In 2000, sonar tests in the Bahamas apparently caused the deaths of eight whales, though that incident involved multiple vessels and a closed area where the mammals could not flee.

Necropsies revealed hemorrhaging around the cetaceans' brains and ear bones - injuries consistent with exposure to loud noise.

Marks said the Navy acknowledges responsibility for the Bahamas incident, but added that its sonar has not been linked to any harm of marine mammals in the past four years.

Source: Dateline Alabama