[CPEO-MEF] BIOTA: Navy to increase California sonar training and underwater detonations

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

U.S. Navy to Increase Sonar Training and Underwater Detonations Despite Injury to Marine Mammals  


Natural Resources Defense Council
EcoWatch
August 20, 2013

The U.S. Navy has indicated that it intends to disregard the California Coastal Commission’s (CCC) recommendations to mitigate the harmful effects of Navy sonar and offshore training exercises on the state’s marine mammals. In a letter dated July 31, the Navy responded to the CCC’s March objection, which concluded that the Navy’s planned training and testing activities in Southern California would not be consistent with California coastal law.

The Navy’s plans would allow a radical increase in sonar training and underwater detonations off Southern California, beginning in January 2014. While the Navy says it is open to negotiation, it refuses in its letter to abide by any of the state’s recommended mitigation measures, such as avoiding training in globally important foraging habitat for the endangered blue whale.

The Navy’s review comes in the wake of several new studies showing that its Southern California activities are harming marine mammal species, such as blue whales and beaked whales, far more than was previously known.


…

For the entire article, see
http://ecowatch.com/2013/navy-increase-sonar-training-despite-injury-to-mammals/


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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
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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