Courtesy the Los Angeles Times
A
US federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday August 26 prohibited
the USN from testing a powerful sonar system in most parts of
the world’s oceans, ruling that its use could “irreparably
harm” marine life.
The US Navy wants to use the low-frequency active sonar (LFA),
which is designed to “light up” enemy submarines.
The shipboard system comprises an array of 18 speakers capable
of releasing 215-decibel bursts of low-frequency soundwaves that
can travel hundreds of miles before dissipating.
Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Navy and the National Marine
Fisheries Service failed to consider alternatives that could shield
whales and other marine life from these loud sounds.
Laporte accepted the Navy’s advice that it needs the sonar
to detect super-quiet diesel submarines. Therefore, she would
not issue a ban on the sonar but would allow the Navy to work
out a plan for its use.
The judge said her injunction would not hamper the Navy during
times of war or heightened threat conditions.
Yet for peacetime testing and training, she wanted to balance
America’s national security needs with environmental safeguards
for marine life, some of which are on the verge of extinction.
Therefore, there was a “strong interest” in minimizing
injury from the “extremely loud and far-traveling sonar.”
She noted that government scientists investigating a number of
cetacean beachings had attributed them to naval exercises involving
mid-frequency sonar.
In response the USN pointed out that the system has never been
implicated in mass strandings. Further, Russia and other nations
have new, extremely quiet submarines and it needed the sonar to
detect them in a timely manner to protect its warships.
In 2002 the National Marine Fisheries Service found the sonar
would have a “negligible impact” on marine species as
long as it operated at least 12 miles offshore and was immediately
turned off when observers spotted cetaceans.
Laporte responded that such measures were not enough to satisfy
the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other environmental laws,
which apply to naval activities in US territorial waters and on
the high seas. The wide sweep of the sonar’s transmissions
would cross paths with endangered whales, salmon and sea turtles.
“There is little margin for error without threatening their
survival,” she said.
“If even a few endangered whales are disturbed by LFA that
population might disappear permanently.”
In response to the ruling, the Navy expressed concern about the
implications of her decision “for national defence and the
ability of the Navy to respond to current and future threats.”
Neither the Navy nor the National Marine Fisheries Service has
indicated whether it will appeal Laporte’s decision.
Until new restrictions are fashioned, the Navy will be limited
to operating the sonar in the deep waters of the western Pacific,
east and south of Japan, and stretching south to the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the USN is funding a study off the Queensland coast
to determine the impact of man-made and natural noises on the
behavior of whales.
The Office of Naval Research is funding the Humpback Whale Acoustic
Research Collaboration project $900,000 over three years to investigate
how sonars, oil seismic testing and industrial shipping impact
whales’ health.
A major part of the project will be the monitoring of the different
‘songs’ of humpback whales migrating back to the Southern
Ocean. While scientists know that the whales ‘sing’
during the breeding season the purpose is unknown and there is
concern that man-made noise may interfere with or even mask the
songs, potentially disrupting breeding.
