NRDC, a powerful partner in worldwide conservation, informs
US Person that a federal court judge has ruled the Navy's upcoming RIMPAC exercises violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act because essentially a deaf whale is a dead whale. It has been shown beyond controversy that military sonar emissions inflict harm on marine mammals, damaging their echo-location sense and even causing death. The military's own data showed that the latest RIMPAC plan would be a 1100% increase in incidents of harm to whales and dolphins.
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| credit: Pacific Whale Foundation |
A coalition of conservation group sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to meet its obligations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The groups want the Navy to take marine mammal protection seriously by establishing better safeguards and even declaring areas
out-of-bounds when whales are seen mating or feeding. The Navy points to a tiny 3.12 mile long area of ocean it set aside for humpbacks near the
Hawaiian coast while claiming its needs 2.7 million square nautical miles for its exercises, an area larger than the continental US. Despite the token provisions to protect intelligent mammals from harm, the NMFS approved the Navy's plan.
The court battle is only half over. The judge must still rule on what steps the NMFS must take to bring itself into compliance. Even a federal judge cannot ignore the Navy's training needs, so the exercises will take place. That ruling will take months. Until then, Pacific whales and dolphins can go on living peacefully in their ocean home.