[CPEO-MEF] Environmentalists sue to block Navy sonar

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Environmentalists sue to block Navy sonar, saying it kills whales

Thursday, August 08, 2002
By Colleen Valles, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO ? Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to stop the 
Navy from using a powerful new sonar system for detecting enemy 
submarines, saying the intense underwater sounds can harm whales and 
dolphins.

The coalition, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, sued the 
Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday in U.S. 
District Court in San Francisco to block the Surveillance Towed Array 
Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar.

In July the fisheries service gave the Navy a five-year exemption from 
the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which protects whales and dolphins. 
"Despite the public and scientific outcry, the National Marine Fisheries 
Service, under whatever pressure, has licensed the U.S. Navy to 
basically break the law. It is a license to kill," said Jean-Michel 
Cousteau, founder and president of Ocean Futures Society, a member of 
the coalition.

But the Navy says it has invested more than $10 million to develop the 
appropriate guidelines to use the sonar system. "We are disappointed 
that some groups refuse to accept scientific peer-reviewed findings and 
instead rely on misinformation and unrelated facts to try to prevent the 
use of this system," Navy Lt. Cmdr. Pauline Storum said in a statement 
Wednesday. 

This article can be viewed in its entirety at:
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08082002/ap_48083.asp

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