Posted on 02/06/2008 7:48:21 PM PST by SmithL
San Francisco -- For the second time this week, a federal court found today that a Navy anti-submarine training program threatened to subject whales and other sea creatures to harmful blasts of sonar and ordered protective measures in several sensitive zones, including one near Monterey Bay.
The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco applies to the Navy's use of low-frequency sonar in submarine detection exercises conducted in large areas of the world's oceans. She said Navy officials, who had agreed to restrictions after she issued a similar ruling in 2002, failed to take adequate precautions when seeking a five-year renewal of the program last year.
In its plans to shut off the sonar when whales and other vulnerable creatures are spotted, the Navy is relying on visual monitoring, which is unreliable, and on sonar detection, which is limited in range and may miss dolphins and other small animals, Laporte said.
"Marine mammals, many of whom depend on sensitive hearing for essential activities like finding food and mates and avoiding predators, will at a minimum be harassed by the extremely loud and far-traveling (low-frequency) sonar," the magistrate said.
She said the Navy must establish sonar-free zones around several areas where sensitive marine life is plentiful, including the Davidson Seamount, which adjoins the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary; the Galapagos Islands, 0ffshore from Ecuador; the Great Barrier Reef off Australia; the Pelagos, in the Mediterranean Sea, and a protected area of coral reefs and underwater habitat 115 miles northwest of the Hawaiian islands.
Laporte said the National Marine Fisheries Service, which approved the Navy's plans, rejected a proposal by its own parent agency to protect the Davidson Seamount.
She also said the Navy may have to expand its sonar-free zones beyond the 12 nautical miles required by current rules.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
How about a SONAR-free zone here in Ohio?
“...She said the Navy must establish sonar-free zones around several areas where sensitive marine life is plentiful,...”
Don’t forget to tell the Dolphins so they know where it is.
These people are either so embecilic that they do not even consider our own and their own self defense and are thus willing used to lay us open before potential enemies...or they are absolutely sinister and in league with those same enemies.
There are many useful idiots that are the former...but some among them are certinly the latter and deserve to be keel-hauled.
“...She said the Navy must establish sonar-free zones around several areas where sensitive marine life is plentiful,...”
“Don’t forget to tell the Dolphins so they know where it is.”
And the Chinese too. Can’t forget them. Gotta know where the Sonar-Free-Zones are
So our enemies will have free acess to the US coastline. How about maps showing them our vulnerable sections?
Yes, it isn’t like the Navy actually needs Sonar to protect the nation. /sarc off
It is rulings like this that makes me think we need to amend the Constitution so that when it comes to Presidential, Legislative or Judicial power, every candidate or appointee must first have served in the military, to prove they are true patriots.
Having said that, I do NOT believe that only military members are patriotic citizens.
But when it comes to national security, it seems to me that those who loathe the military do NOT understand the important role that the military serves. The men and women who serve show their respect for their nation through their sacrifice.
I respect their sacrifice and am humbled by it.
about those come up with these idiot laws: power corrupts.
These two old SF hippies, Liz and Flo on our so-called “courts” are really sticking it to my freedom and security. I’m not appreciating this.
Very true, and I forgot they need inform the Whales too.
There’s a few spots in CA that might fit the bill as they’re already USN property: China Lake and the Chocolate Mountains aerial gunnery range come to mind.
since when do US Judges have jurisdiction in foreign waters and lands?
This is as rediculous and frivolous as what the liberal judge was doing in Klamath Falls in 2001. But it's also just as deadly serious.
Heck...if the dolphins or whales do not like the sonar, they'll just swim away. it's a big ocean out there.
I know, I know.
I’m a romantic. I think of the heroes of World War II with the same warmth that I do for Mom and apple pie. It’s too bad men like Kuntsler have to rain on my parade. :(
Kunstler was a communist. The only debate is whether he was an official member of the Communist Party USA or not. His law partners were well known CP members (Morton Stavis) or CP sympathizers, Peter Weiss, or CP-directed lawyers and as yet unidentified CP members such as Arthur Kinoy. Kinoy tried to set up a new marxist group, NCIPA (National Committee for Independent Political Action), whose founding conference I attended. He’s still alive and still a red at heart.
Re the judges in the sonar case.
Let’s creat a “dumbass judge-freeze zone” for all of California, for a start. That will get rid of the Nutty Ninth and all the local leftist legal hacks.
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