Court upholds whale protection in Navy exercises

[Demagitator]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle



SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush's attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws.

In a Friday night ruling rushed into print ahead of the next scheduled exercise on Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision that no emergency existed that would justify Bush's intervention.

The Navy is engaged in "long-planned, routine training exercises" and has had ample time to take the steps that the law requires - conduct a thorough review of the environmental consequences and propose effective measures to minimize the harm to whales and other marine mammals, the three-judge panel said.

The court noted that the Navy has been conducting similar exercises for years, has agreed in the past to restrictions like the ones it is now challenging, and was sued by environmental groups in the current case nearly a year ago. The lower-court judge reviewed the evidence and found nothing to support the Navy's claim that the protective measures would interfere with vital training or hamper national security, the court said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/02/MNDPVC5VC.DTL

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Don't they understand that Bin Laden has a whole FLEET of Submarines???!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I bet the whales are in cahoots with the turrussts, too!!

[orleans]

2. well, this is good news again. ha! take that george--you motherfu*ker

Bush's actions were also constitutionally questionable, the court said, because he cited no evidence that Cooper had not already reviewed, but instead merely disagreed with her conclusions. Under the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, "it was the job of the appellate court, and not the executive branch," to decide whether the judge erred, said Judge Betty Fletcher in the court ruling.

She said the court didn't have to decide the constitutional issue, however, because the president's order failed to meet the standard for an exemption under the environmental regulations.

The ruling shows that "neither the president nor the U.S. Navy is above the law," attorney Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said Saturday.

Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore, a Navy spokeswoman, told the Associated Press the Navy is considering an appeal. The ruling places "significant restrictions on our ability to train realistically," although it is less restrictive than Cooper's earlier decision, she said.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/02/MNDPVC5VC.DTL

[orleans]

3. more from natural resources defense council

The Navy itself estimates that its “SOCAL” sonar exercises, an on-going series of drills being conducted over two years, will significantly disturb or injure 170,000 marine mammals, including causing permanent injury to more than 450 whales and temporary hearing impairment in at least 8,000 others.

snip

High-intensity MFA sonar can blast vast areas of the oceans with dangerous levels of underwater noise, and has killed marine mammals in numerous incidents around the world. Many scientists believe that animals seen stranded on the beach represent only a small part of the technology’s toll, given that severely injured animals would rarely come to shore. The waters off southern California have some of the richest marine habitat in the country, and include five endangered species of whales, a globally important population of blue whales, the largest animal ever to live on earth, and as many as seven individual species of beaked whales, which are known to be particularly vulnerable to underwater sound.

The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of conservation organizations led by NRDC, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League for Coastal Protection, Cetacean Society International, and Ocean Futures Society and its president and founder Jean-Michel Cousteau. A related lawsuit challenging the Navy’s actions was brought by the State of California on behalf of the California Coastal Commission.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080301.asp