[CPEO-MEF] BIOTA: "Navy trumps whales"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Supreme Court on sonar: Navy trumps whales

Bob Egelko
Sam Francisco Chronicle
November 13, 2008


Threats to national security are more important than possible harm to 
whales and dolphins, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in lightening 
restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in anti-submarine training off 
Southern California despite its potential effects on undersea creatures.

The ruling, the first of the court's 2008-09 term, accepted the Navy's 
arguments that the limitations would hinder vital exercises in the use 
of sonar to detect enemy submarines. The restrictions, imposed by lower 
courts, would have required the Navy to reduce or halt underwater sonar 
pulses when marine mammals might be nearby.

"Forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained anti-submarine force 
jeopardizes the safety of the fleet," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote 
in the majority opinion. The resulting damage to the Navy and the public 
interest, he said, outweighs the injury that environmental groups that 
challenged the use of sonar might suffer from "harm to an unknown number 
of marine mammals that they study and observe."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/13/BALA1436Q5.DTL

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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