- SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
The U.S. Navy may temporarily test a new underwater sonar system in a much
smaller area than originally planned, which will minimize harm to marine
mammals, an environmental lawyer said on Saturday.
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- The Navy originally was granted a permit by the National
Marine Fisheries Service to test a high-intensity sonar system in 14 million
square miles of the Pacific Ocean, said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney
in the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
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- The NRDC and four other environmental groups sued to
block the deployment, arguing that the loud, low-frequency sonar for detecting
submarines at great distances would harm and kill whales, dolphins, seals
and other marine mammals.
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- Under an agreement reached on Friday between the Navy
and the environmental groups, the Navy will be able to test the sonar for
seven months in only one million square miles in a northwestern section
of the Pacific, Reynolds said.
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- The remote testing area is west of Hawaii, east of Japan
and Taiwan and north of the Philippines, he said.
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- "This is an area that is not likely to have a high
presence of marine mammals," Reynolds said. "In particular, it's
away from feeding and breeding areas and whale migration routes."
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- Many marine mammals need their hearing to find food and
mates and to avoid predators. Navy studies have found that the new sonar
system generates sounds capable of reaching 140 decibels as far away as
300 miles, the environmental groups say.
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- Navy public affairs officers did not return calls for
comment on Saturday.
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- Late last month, a judge in San Francisco granted a preliminary
injunction barring the Navy from using the sonar, ruling that the permit
likely violated several U.S. environmental protection laws, Reynolds said.
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- The judge agreed to allow temporary testing of the sonar
in a limited area pending the final decision after the Navy cited national
security concerns, he said.
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- Reynolds said he expected the trial to begin in June
and a final decision in July.
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- A federal investigation identified Navy sonar as the
cause of a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas in 2000 and the disappearance
of an entire population of beaked whales in the region, according to environmental
groups.
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- In the beached whales that died, scientists found hemorrhaging
near the brain and ear areas, which are injuries consistent with exposure
to high-intensity loud noise, environmentalists said.
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- In a separate case, a San Francisco federal judge last
month ordered the National Science Foundation to stop firing loud sonic
blasts from air guns in the Gulf of California. The blasts, part of seismic
research in Mexico, have been linked to the death of whales, according
to environmental groups.
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