NOAA announces regulations to protect marine mammals during Navy testing

[Beringia]

1. National Resources Defence Council Wins Lawsuit against Feds Endangered Whales

(The Other Side of the Coin)

NDRC, Sep 26, 2013

A federal court has found that the government violated the Endangered Species Act when permitting Navy training activities in the Northwest Training Range Complex—a California-sized training area extending from Washington’s border with Canada down to Northern California. The decision requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reassess its permits to ensure that the Navy’s training complies with the Endangered Species Act’s requirements for the area’s endangered Southern Resident killer whales, blue whales, humpback whales, fin whales, sei whales, sperm whales, and Steller sea lions. The government can no longer ignore science—that is developing at a brisk pace—showing that the Navy’s use of sonar is more harmful to whales and dolphins than previously thought.

NRDC and other concerned organizations (InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth Friends of the San Juans, and People for Puget Sound) challenged the Fisheries Service’s permitting of the Navy’s activities in the Pacific Northwest in January 2012. With its ruling yesterday afternoon, the court found that the agency’s approval of the Navy’s activities ignored the best available science showing that marine mammals are far more sensitive to sonar that can cause hearing loss and other injuries.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/zsmith/court_finds_feds_violated_enda.html



Feds Give Navy Green Light to Kill Whales and Dolphins
Zak Smith’s Blog, NDRC
Nov 13, 2013

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS aka NOAA Fisheries) has announced the finalization of rules governing the Navy’s activities along the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico for the next five years. In a Bizzaro-World move, with these rules the agency charged with protecting whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals gives its stamp of approval to Navy training and testing activities that will harm millions of marine mammals, killing many. While not entirely unexpected, it’s still disappointing to see NMFS walk away from the one measure that would significantly reduce impacts to marine mammals: keeping harmful training and testing activities away from ocean areas dense with whales and dolphins.

NRDC has been fighting to protect marine mammals from dangerous sonar for more than 12 years. Clearly, our work is not done.


http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/zsmith/court_finds_feds_violated_enda.html