The Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued the military on the
issue, and the Navy reached a settlement last week in which the Navy
agreed to use the new system only in specific areas along the eastern
seaboard of Asia, according to documents provided by the environmental
group.
The agreement must be approved by a federal magistrate to become
permanent, but if implemented the deal would greatly restrict the Navy's
original plan for the sonar system, which once was slated to be tested in
most of the world's oceans.
The Navy has not received final word of the agreement, but would
comply, said Lt. Cmdr. Cappy Surette.
"Whatever the final decision is, the Navy will uphold the law," Surette
said from the Pentagon.
Environmentalists say sonar systems endanger marine mammals and fish,
especially whales. They point to a different system the Navy used in 2000,
when at least 16 whales and two dolphins beached themselves on islands in
the Bahamas. Eight whales died and scientists found hemorrhaging around
their brains and ear bones, which could have been caused by exposure to
loud noise.
"Oceans are an acoustic environment, and the species that live there
have an acute acoustic sense," Frederick O'Regan, president of the
International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a conference call Monday.
"If we interfere with these critical behaviors, we may be affecting not
just individual animals, but entire populations."
Last year the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental
groups sued the Navy over the new system, seeking to restrict its use.
U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte later issued a preliminary injunction
restricting use of the system, and in a separate ruling ordered the
environmentalists and the Navy to negotiate a final settlement.
The new deal, which is the result of those negotiations, largely
mirrors the restrictions imposed by Laporte's injunction.
Since the injunction, the Navy has used the sonar system in restricted
areas without harm to marine life, Surette said. It is designed to detect
enemy diesel submarines at great distances.
Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the
Natural Resources Defense Council, welcomed the settlement.
"This agreement safeguards both marine life and national security,"
Reynolds said in a statement. "It will prevent the needless injury,
harassment, and death of countless whales, porpoises and fish, and yet
allow the Navy to do what is necessary to defend our country."
In addition to restricting the system to the eastern seaboard of Asia,
the Navy also agreed to seasonal restrictions designed to protect whale
migrations, and to avoid using the system near the coast.
None of the restrictions applies during time of war.
Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Defense Council, International Fund
for Animal Welfare and other environmental groups announced a new global
campaign Monday to stop the spread of high-intensity sonar systems in
oceans. Such systems are used by the defense forces of Canada, Britain,
France, Germany, Italy and other nations.
