[CPEO-MEF] Controversial Navy Sonar Cleared for Limited Testing

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Controversial Navy Sonar Cleared for Limited Testing

SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 18, 2002 (ENS) - A federal judge has
lifted a worldwide ban on the U.S. Navy's experimental new sonar system,
clearing the way for limited testing of the controversial system. The
judge approved an agreement reached by the Navy and a coalition of
environmental groups who seek to limit the sonar's potential impacts on
marine mammals.

Friday's agreement will allow limited testing of the Navy's Surveillance
Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar (SURTASS LFA) while
the federal court in San Francisco considers a lawsuit challenging the
legality of the system. Conservation groups have argued that the federal
government has not done enough to ensure that the new, high intensity
sonar system will not hurt or kill whales, dolphins, seals and sea
turtles with its loud signals.

Late last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth LaPorte had issued a
preliminary injunction stopping the deployment of the sonar system,
which relies on very loud, low frequency sound to detect submarines at
great distances. On Friday, she signed a temporary agreement between
lawyers for the Navy and a coalition of conservation groups, allowing
limited testing of the sonar system under strictly defined conditions.

The Navy originally had planned to deploy SURTASS LFA across about 14
million miles of the North Pacific by the end of last summer. The Navy
developed the system to protect warships against super quiet diesel
submarines, owned by Russia and other nations.

Under the agreement signed Friday, the Navy will launch the system in
about one million square miles of ocean around the Mariana Islands,
avoiding to coasts of the Philippines and Japan.

This article can be viewed at:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-18-06.asp

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