http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051019/...c/sonar_whales

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Environmentalists sued the Navy on Wednesday, claiming that a widely used form of sonar for detecting enemy submarines disturbs and sometimes kills whales and dolphins.

The sonar "is capable of flooding thousands of square miles of ocean with dangerous levels of noise pollution," according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

The Navy settled a similar lawsuit two years ago by agreeing to limit the peacetime use of experimental low-frequency sonar. The new lawsuit, by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other plaintiffs, seeks a court order to curb mid-frequency sonar, the most common method of detecting enemy submarines.

NRDC attorney Joel Reynolds said the group recognizes the Navy's need to detect enemies, and he noted that the lawsuit seeks limits on sonar during training exercises, not in war.

"Our position is that whales shouldn't have to die for practice," he said.

The environmentalists want the Navy to use harmless passive sonar — listening for sounds made by marine mammals themselves — to locate the animals before using mid-frequency sonar. They also want the Navy to avoid migration and calving areas and to turn on sonar systems gradually so that the animals have time to flee.

Navy spokesman Lt. William Marks said the Navy already is doing many of the things demanded in the suit.

The lawsuit blames the Navy for the January stranding and deaths of at least 37 whales on North Carolina's Outer Banks after a mid-frequency sonar exercise. The Navy said the exercise was probably too far away to have harmed the whales.

While there are several decent points in this bogus case, i beleive practice is ment to train for war, therefore the rules should be no diffrent.

I'm not an expert, but I fully agree with you on that one.

Sonar disturbing whales? I don't doubt it, seems logical if they work along whale frequencies. And no, i did not read the full story.

Two words...

DIRTY HIPPIES

'Nuff Said

Luis (5.56X45MM)

I side with the whales.

the whales. We are talking about the defenders of America here. My country. If if hurts the whales, then they can leave!

I say we force our submarines to use active sonar all the time, lets kill off all the dam whales, then they shull up.

NUKE THE WHALES!!!


they are too big anyway.

Originally Posted by therise21

NUKE THE WHALES!!
they are too big anyway.

While there are several decent points in this bogus case, i beleive practice is ment to train for war, therefore the rules should be no diffrent.

So we should use live rounds against each other in training exercises?

In my opinion, from what i've read, the demands made by the NRDC are completely reasonable and there is no valid reason why the Navy shouldn't follow them. There is little, if any, training value lost. And it helps the environment and thats a good thing.

Down here however, environmentalists have taken away HEAPS of good value training. For instance, there are quite a few training areas around where we arn't even allowed to dig weapon pits anymore. ThAT is stupid.