[CPEO-MEF] NOAA challenges Atlantic sonar range

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Navy's Plans for Sonar Facility Challenged
Danger Posed to Whales Is Cited

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post
February 18, 2006

The civilian agency in charge of marine issues has sharply challenged 
the Navy's plans to build an underwater sonar training range in the 
Atlantic Ocean, saying that the military significantly underestimated 
the danger posed to whales and other marine mammals and that the science 
the Navy used to reach its conclusions is flawed.

In a technical letter to the Navy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA) said the Navy had neglected to address the 
likelihood that its mid-frequency sonar would kill some whales and that 
the highly endangered right whale makes its annual migrations near the 
proposed site off North Carolina and could be threatened. But most 
telling, the NOAA letter said that the Navy had used a measure for 
allowable noise 100 times as high as the level recommended by the agency.

The sonar testing range is a high priority for the Navy, which says that 
it needs an Atlantic Ocean site to train sailors to detect foreign 
submarines that come near American shores. But it is trying to get the 
project approved at a time when scientists have become increasingly 
convinced that the loud blasts of active sonar have caused whales to 
strand themselves and die.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702258.html

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
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