Environmental groups sue over US Navy sonar plans
Date: 08-Aug-02
Country: USA
After years of debate, the National Marine Fisheries Department last month granted the Navy permission to operate its new low-frequency active sonar system, which is designed to blast wide areas of ocean with sound waves as it seeks to detect submarines equipped with "stealth" technology.
The Navy says the new sonar, also known as LFA, is needed to protect U.S. warships from a new breed of submarines that can barely be detected by conventional sonar systems.
But environmentalists said the new sonar produces ambient noise levels that might physically harm whales and other marine mammals or alter migration or other behaviors vital for their survival.
The lawsuit, which was to be filed in federal court in San Francisco, challenges deployment of the low-frequency active sonar, also known as LFA, under several federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
"If the Navy deploys LFA, tens of thousands of square miles of ocean habitat would be saturated with extremely loud and dangerous sound," said Joel Reynolds, senior NRDC attorney, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Reynolds cited Navy estimates that the LFA system generates sounds capable of reaching 140 decibels more than 300 miles (483 kms) away.
He said the mass stranding and death of multiple whale species in the Bahamas in March 2000 had been linked by federal investigators to use of a Navy mid-frequency active sonar system. Scientists worry the lower frequency sonar the Navy wants to use now could have similar consequences.
But the fisheries service, a division of the U.S. Commerce Department, said it approved the Navy's use of the sonar after determining that marine mammals were "unlikely to be injured."
It also said various measures, including provisions that the sonar cannot be used within 12 miles (19 km) of the coast and must shut down if any whales, sea turtles or other marine mammals are detected within about 1.2 miles (2 km), would help to ensure the sonar did not harm marine mammals.
The July decision by the fisheries service exempted the Navy from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, allowing it to operate the low-frequency sonar for five years, subject to annual review.
The National Resources Defense Council is joined in the lawsuit by the Humane Society, the League for Coastal Protection, the Cetacean Society International and the Ocean Futures Society and its president, Jean-Michel Cousteau.