To protect whales and other mammels, Nature Freaks in California have gotten the Navy banned from using underwater sonar. Sonar is used to detect submarines where they shouldn't be.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper issued a temporary injunction Monday, rejecting a Navy request that she dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council.The council says the Navy planned to use so-called mid-frequency sonar over thousands of square miles of ocean in an area rich in marine life. The council contends the high-power sonar causes marine mammals to beach themselves and leads to other harm.
The injunction will force the Navy to comply with federal environmental laws protecting marine life, said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney for the NRDC.
Well thank god that someone is watching out for the freaking whales. Cause you know we wouldn't want any other harm to come to them.
To hell with the people, I guess we can fend for ourselves when crazy Russia reads this and sends their submarines over here.
"To the extent this court decision prevents us from using active sonar, it potentially puts American lives and our national security at risk," the Navy's Third Fleet commander, Vice Adm. Samuel Locklear, said in a statement.The Navy maintains that it already minimizes risks to marine life. It has monitored the ocean off Southern California for the 40 years it has employed sonar without seeing any whale injuries, the Navy said in a news release.
The Navy has planned a series of 14 training exercises using sonar. It says it has already carried out three of these and has found no evidence of strandings, injuries or behavioral disturbance to marine mammals.
Says the Navy has data showing the sonar doesn't make whales want to kill themselves by throwing themselves onto beaches, but the Nature Freaks don't show any proof, just speculation.
Of course, if the nature freaks were correct - we would've run out of marine mammals YEARS ago. ARG!!!
Posted by: Teresa at August 7, 2007 02:54 PMThink the russian subs aren't sitting off the coast, just like we're still sitting off theirs? The 'cold' war will never be over because we can't trust each other. And that's just russia!
Thank you, nature freaks, for opening us up to attack. Hope they get you first. Ugh.
Posted by: pam at August 7, 2007 03:47 PMThankfully, though, they didn't halt the Large Ocean Mammal Suicide Bomb Corps program, whose training and proofs-of-concept the beached mammals actually represent.
Wire up whales with explosives and have them beach themselves in enemy population centers, naval bases, or shipping lanes and then explode. I mean, the environmentalists couldn't sue to stop that program because it sounds crazy.
So crazy it could just work.
Posted by: Brian J. at August 7, 2007 06:39 PM