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Navy Granted Waivers In Sonar Program Impacting Marine Mammals

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Follow up to January 5, 2008 posting, Federal Judge Orders Navy To Adopt Significant Mitigation Measures For Sonar Use, from the Natural Resources Defense Council, news that “the Bush administration yesterday attempted to override a federal court order requiring the U.S. Navy to minimize harm to whales and dolphins during upcoming sonar exercises off Southern California. In an effort to nullify measures established to protect marine mammals from potentially lethal sound blasts, President Bush gave the Navy an unprecedented waiver under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), and allowed the Navy a second “emergency” waiver under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).”

  • DefenseLink press release, Navy Granted Authority To Use Sonar In Training Off California: “In accordance with the provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), and at the recommendation of the Secretary of Commerce, the President concluded that continuing these vital exercises without the restrictions imposed by the district court is in the paramount interests of the United States. He signed an exemption from the requirements of the CZMA for the Navy’s continued use of mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar in a series of exercises scheduled to take place off the coast of California through January 2009. The Navy already applies twenty-nine mitigation measures approved by federal environmental regulators when using active sonar, and these will remain in place.”
  • See also, Sounding the Depths II – The Rising Toll of Sonar, Shipping and Industrial Ocean Noise on Marine Life
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