Ea O Ka Aina: Naval sonar damage settlement

SUBHEAD: Navy, bowing to two legal suits, agrees to limit Pacific trainings to protect marine life.

By Chris De Angelo on 15 September 2015 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/navy-settlement-sonar-explosives-testing-in-california-hawaii_55f73373e4b0c2077efbba5e)

Image above: Two dolphin race ahead of the bow of the USNS Kaiser. From (http://news.discovery.com/earth/online-protests-against-navy-sonar-plans-120706.htm).

The U.S. Navy estimates it inadvertently kills 155 whales and dolphins off the coasts of Hawaii and Southern California in five years. Its training exercises also injure some 2,000 marine animals over the same period.

On Monday, thanks to a pair of lawsuits brought by environmental groups Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Navy agreed to limit its use of sonar and other harmful training activities in critical habitats for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.

The settlement, finalized by a federal judge in Honolulu, reconciles a decade-old debate about the Navy's sonar practices.

The agreement includes limits or bans on mid-frequency active sonar and explosives in specified areas. Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said that, at great distances, sonar can disrupt feeding and communication of marine mammals. At closer distances, it can lead to deafness or even death.

In Southern California, the Navy will no longer be able to use sonar in important habitats for beaked whales between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island, as well as in blue whale feeding areas near San Diego.

In Hawaii, the agreement prohibits sonar and explosives training on the eastern side of the Big Island and north of Molokai and Maui. The environmental groups say the restrictions will protect Hawaiian monk seals and small populations of toothed whales, including the endangered false killer whale.

The Natural Resources Defense Council called the settlement a "huge victory," but said it won’t end the advocacy group's fight to protect marine mammals from Navy sonar.

"We’ll now work to expand this success to the Navy’s other ranges ... and to make the protections we’ve achieved permanent for marine mammals off Southern California and Hawaii," spokesman Kimiko Martinez told HuffPost.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC 2014 - another whale death in Hanalei 7/27/14
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC 2014 in Full March 7/16/14
Ea O Ka Aina: 21st Century Energy Wars 7/10/14
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC War on the Ocean 7/3/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Voila - World War Three 7/1/14
Ea O Ka Aina: The Pacific Pivot 6/28/14
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC IMPACT 6/8/14
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC Then and Now 5/16/143
Ea O Ka Aina: Help save Mariana Islands 11/13/13
Ea O Ka Aina: End RimPac destruction of Pacific 11/1/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Moana Nui Conference 11/1/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Navy to conquer Marianas again 9/3/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Pagan Island beauty threatened 10/26/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Navy license to kill 10/27/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Sleepwalking through destruction 7/16/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Despoiling Jeju island coast begins 3/7/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Jeju Islanders protests Navy Base 2/29/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Military schmoozes Guam & Hawaii 3/17/11
Ea O Ka Aina: RimPac to expand activities 6/29/10
Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC War Games here in July 6/20/10

Ea O Ka Aina: De-colonizing the Pacific 5/21/10

Ea O Ka Aina: Navy admits threat to sea mammals 5/10/10

Ea O Ka Aina: RIMPAC to Return in 2010 5/2/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Living at the Tip of the Spear 4/5/10

Ea O Ka Aina: Living at the Tip of the Spear 4/15/10

Ea O Ka Aina: Guam Land Grab 11/30/09
E a O Ka Aina: Guam as a modern Bikini Atoll 12/25/09

Island Breath: Navy RIMPAC responsible for beaked whale death 7/31/08