California filed lawsuits on Thursday, urging the U.S. Navy not to use
a type of sonar alleged to harm whales and other marine life.
In separate lawsuits, the California Coastal Commission and several
environmental groups said the Navy is refusing to take simple
measures, such as avoiding whale migration routes, to reduce the
environmental harm from 14 exercises planned through January 2009 that
would use high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar.The Navy's tests "pose
too great a risk to marine species to go forward without additional
protective measures that the Navy refuses to adopt," according to the
litigation filed by the Natural Resources Defence Council and other
groups.
The Navy uses the special sonar to detect quiet submarines.
Environmentalists claim that blasts of sound are loud enough to
permeate thousands of square miles undersea with noise which is
harmful to the marine life.
The groups also accused the Navy of failing to do sufficient
environmental analysis of the sonar exercises, and of not complying
with the Coastal Zone Management Act, which requires the federal
government to follow the state's coastal plan as much as possible.
The environmental groups' portion of the litigation asks a judge to
block the Navy from using the sonar for the exercises "unless and
until that use is in full compliance with federal law".
The Coastal Commission's lawsuit, which was filed separately, asks
that the Navy be ordered to comply with the Coastal Zone Management
Act and other laws, as well as with the safeguards the commission
determined were necessary.
California Coastal Commissioner Sara Wan said her agency tried to
work with Naval officials, but "believes that the Navy has left it no
choice but to take legal action".
In a Feb. 12 decision in which it refused to implement the
commission's requested safeguards, the Navy said it had concluded on
its own that the exercises were consistent with the state's coastal
plan, according to court papers.A Naval representative declined to
comment on the litigation.
The Navy contends the sonar exercises are necessary for national
security. The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling
Commission found in 2004 that evidence "appears overwhelming" that
exposure to the sonar causes whale deaths.
The environmental groups said there is no dispute that the type of
sonar can kill and injure not only whales, which can be left stranded
on beaches, but other species as well.
They contend the sonar can cause marine mammals to lose their
hearing or to abandon their habitat, and can also cause fish to lose
their hearing, making it difficult for them to avoid predators or hunt
for prey. Sea turtles and squid may also be harmed, the court papers
state.
The exercises would be performed in waters that contain some of the
nation's richest marine life, including the ocean around the Channel
Islands National Marine Sanctuary, according to the groups.
The area is inhabited by six endangered whale species -- blue, fin,
humpback, North Pacific right, sei, and sperm whales -- and three
marine mammal species listed as threatened, including a type of sea
otter and sea lion, said the groups.
Previously, four similar lawsuits were brought against the Navy
over sonar exercises in other areas, including waters near Hawaii.
In the Hawaii case, a Los Angeles federal judge issued a temporary
restraining order blocking use of the sonar. The lawsuit was settled
four days later when the Navy agreed to safeguards such as not using
the sonar within 25 nautical miles of the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands Marine National Monument.
Two of the other lawsuits were also successful, and a fourth is
pending, an attorney for the plaintiffs said.
Mar 23, 07
