Skip to footer

US Navy agrees to curb use of sonar in effort to save whales

A federal judge in Honolulu signed an agreement that bans or limits mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in certain parts of Southern California and the Hawaiian islands.

|
Richard Vogel/AP/File
Dolphins swim along the side of a boat off the coast of San Pedro, Calif., Oct. 15, 2014. The Navy agreed to limit its use of sonar and other training that inadvertently harms whales, dolphins and other marine mammals off Hawaii and Calif. in a settlement with environmental groups approved Monday Sept. 14, 2015. A centerpiece of the agreement signed by a federal judge in Honolulu includes limits or bans on mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in specified areas around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California, Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said.
  • By Cathaleen Chen Staff

The US Navy will curb its use of sonar and other explosive training exercises off California and Hawaii to avoid harming dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals.

As part of a settlement with environmental groups including Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, a federal judge in Honolulu signed an agreement that bans or limits mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in certain parts of Southern California and the Hawaiian islands.

This decision marks a success for the environmental groups, who sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for approving the Navy’s training plans.

According to Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, sonar can cause deafness or even death at a close distance and from far away, it can disrupt feeding and communication of marine mammals.

Training exercises can be even more fatal. The Navy estimated an inadvertent death toll of 155 whales and dolphins off Hawaii and Southern California. In San Diego, four dolphins died in 2011 when they got too close to an explosives training exercise, Mr. Henkin says.

The Navy estimates trainings could could cause 11,000 serious injuries of marine life off the East Coast and 2,000 off Hawaii and Southern California.

"Recognizing our environmental responsibilities, the Navy has been, and will continue to be, good environmental stewards as we prepare for and conduct missions in support of our national security," US Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight told the Associated Press.

The agreement has measures for the protection of specific species. For instance, it prohibits the Navy from using sonar in the Southern California habitat for beaked whales between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island. In Hawaii, refraining from sonar and explosives on the eastern side of Big Island and north of Molokai and Maui will protect Hawaiian monk seals and toothed whales.

The Natural Resources Defense Council says it will continue battling the Navy’s sonar use off the Pacific Northwest, in the Gulf of Alaska, and off northern Florida.

 This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to US Navy agrees to curb use of sonar in effort to save whales
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0917/US-Navy-agrees-to-curb-use-of-sonar-in-effort-to-save-whales
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe