Marine Mammal Deaths & Naval Hubris

August 18, 2009 Attachment 2 of 2 to NMFS Comments
Abstract of articles assembled by and comments by Theresa Marie K. Gandhi.
The U.S. Navy is being sued for exploding ordinance in Puget Sound waters near NSA Whidbey, allegedly killing thousands of fish and potentially harming federally protected species such as Chinook salmon, Stellar sea lions, humpback whales and bull trout filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle on July 29, 2008 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Wild Fish Conservancy. “Juvenile salmon and the food web of Puget Sound would be much better protected if the Navy would simply take the measures suggested by the government’s own scientists," said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy.
LOS ANGELES (August 12, 2008) – The U.S. Navy’s use of low and mid-frequency active sonar will remain restricted to certain military training areas of the Pacific Ocean, according to an agreement approved by a U.S. district court in San Francisco today. The comprehensive agreement between the Navy and conservation organizations follows a court injunction issued early this year against the Navy’s Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system, which blasts vast areas of ocean with harmful levels of underwater noise. In that decision, the court agreed with a coalition of organizations, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), that the Navy’s proposed LFA deployment in more than 70 percent of the world’s oceans was illegal. A separate lawsuit challenging the U.S. Navy’s use of mid-frequency active sonar is currently under consideration in the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We don’t have to choose between national security and protecting the environment,” said Michael Jasny, senior policy analyst with NRDC. “Today’s agreement maintains the Navy’s ability to test and train, while shielding whales and other vulnerable species from harmful underwater noise.”
Under the agreement, LFA testing and training is limited to defined areas of the North Pacific Ocean, and the Navy must adhere to other protective measures, including seasonal and coastal exclusions that will protect breeding grounds and other important whale habitat.
In Hawaii, for example, LFA training cannot occur near the Hawaii Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary or the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, and is limited to waters beyond 50 nautical miles of the main islands, an area known to contain vital habitat for several unique marine mammal populations.
LFA sonar relies on extremely loud, low-frequency sound to detect submarines at great distances. According to the Navy’s own studies, the LFA system generates noise intense enough to significantly disrupt whale behavior more than 300 miles away. Scientists have observed that, under certain oceanic conditions, sound from a single LFA system could be detected across entire oceans.
“Limiting sonar use in breeding grounds and other key habitat areas is essential for the conservation of whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals,” said Naomi Rose, Ph.D., marine mammal scientist for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). “This agreement protects both national security and our most treasured natural resources.”
The lawsuit asserted that a permit issued last year by the National Marine Fisheries Service, allowing deployment of the sonar system around the world, violated a number of federal laws including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The district court agreed, noting in particular that the government had failed to protect marine life with adequate mitigation measures as required by law. In 2002, this same court held a prior permit unlawful, after which NRDC and the U.S. Navy entered into a negotiated agreement that restricted LFA training from important habitat until last year’s permit was issued.
The coalition consists of the Natural Resources Defense Council, International Fund for Animal Welfare, The Humane Society of the United States, Cetacean Society International, League for Coastal Protection, and Ocean Futures Society and its president and founder Jean-Michel Cousteau.
The military employs two types of active sonar: mid-frequency and low-frequency. Low-frequency sonar travels enormous distances in seawater. During testing off the California coast, noise from SURTASS LFA, the Navy's main low-frequency system, was detected across the breadth of the North Pacific. By the Navy's own estimates, even 300 miles from the source these sonic waves can retain an intensity of 140 decibels -- a hundred times more intense than the level known to alter the behavior of large whales. Mid-frequency sonar is more widely used and has been associated with mortalities of whales.
But stranded whales are only the most visible symptom of a problem affecting much larger numbers of marine lives. In the darkness of the ocean, marine mammals and many fish rely on sound to follow migratory routes, to locate each other over great distances, to find food, to breed and to care for their young. Naval sonar has been shown to disrupt feeding and other vital behavior and to cause a wide range of species to panic and flee. Scientists are concerned about the cumulative effect of all of these impacts on populations of animals.
Numerous mass stranding events and whale deaths across the globe have been linked to military sonar use.
October 1989: At least 20 whales of three species strand during naval exercises near the Canary Islands.
December 1991: Two Cuvier's beaked whales strand during naval exercises near the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands authorities have asked NATO to halt a naval exercise in the area, fearing it may be responsible for the death of 17 whales washed up on the coast of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote this week. NATO participants included the US frigate De Wert, which specializes in anti-submarine warfare.

May 1996: Twelve Cuvier's beaked whales strand on the west coast of Greece as NATO ships sweep the area with low- and mid-frequency active sonar.
October 1999: Four beaked whales strand in the U.S. Virgin Islands during Navy maneuvers offshore.
May 2000: A beaked whale strands in Vieques as naval exercises are about to begin offshore.
May 2000: Three beaked whales strand on the beaches of Madeira during NATO naval exercises near shore.
March 2000:.13 beaked whales that stranded in the Bahamas in after exposure to active sonar, seven died.
April 2002: A beaked whale and a humpback whale strand near Vieques during an offshore battle group training exercise.
September 2002: At least 14 beaked whales from three different species strand in the Canary Islands during an anti-submarine warfare exercise in the area. Four additional beaked whales strand over the next several days.
May 2003: As many as 11 harbor porpoises beached along the shores of the Haro Strait, Washington State, as the USS Shoup tests its mid-frequency sonar system.
June 2004: As many as six beaked whales strand during a Navy sonar training exercise off Alaska.
July 2004: Four beaked whales strand during naval exercises near the Canary Islands.
January 2005: At least 34 whales of three species strand along the Outer Banks of North Carolina as Navy sonar training goes on offshore.
2008: A federal court prohibits the Navy from conducting major mid-frequency sonar exercises in California without safety measures in place and rejects a White House bid to excuse the Navy from environmental compliance. The Navy petitions to appeal the decision and the case will go before the U.S. Supreme Court during fall 2008.
2008: A federal court limits the regions where low-frequency sonar may be used and deemed certain species-rich areas, such as the Galapagos Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, off-limits.
2006: Two years after an earlier exercise caused the stranding of 200 whales in Hanalei Bay, a federal court halts sonar use during the Navy's massive Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise off Hawaii. The Navy agrees to additional mitigation to remove the injunction.
2006: After years of pressure from NRDC, the Navy begins to conduct environmental reviews and seek permits for mid-frequency sonar training off the U.S. coasts. The first review, for a proposed training range off North Carolina, is so heavily criticized that the Navy takes the unusual step of withdrawing it and starting from scratch.
2005: An NRDC-led coalition sues the Navy in U.S. federal court after years of attempts at constructive dialogue could not convince the Navy to take common-sense precautions during peacetime training with mid-frequency sonar.
2004: Responding to NRDC and other groups, a suite of intergovernmental bodies begins to take action on sonar. The European Parliament calls on its 25 member states to stop deploying active sonar without more information about the harm to whales and other marine life. ACCOBAMS, a European agreement for marine mammals, commits to develop guidelines for sonar and other noise-producing activities in the Mediterranean and Black seas. The World Conservation Congress of the World Conservation Union calls for international action.
2003: NRDC wins a major victory when a federal court rules illegal the Navy's plan to deploy low-frequency sonar through 75 percent of the world's oceans. The Navy agrees to limit use of the system to a fraction of the area originally proposed, and that use of low-frequency sonar will be guided by negotiated geographical limits and seasonal exclusions. Ongoing NRDC campaigns have made strides toward requiring the Navy to use proper safeguards when employing sonar.

Naval Sonar Experts Know it Kills Marine Mammals:
Secures Exception to law to Kill, i.e., Take Marine Mammals within Sanctuaries!

July 2002 Surtass LFA was authorized for US naval use, despite having been responsible for the mass death of whales in the Mediterranean and off the Bahamas. Surtass LFA transmits signals as powerful as 215 decibels; a whale's eardrums can explode at 180 decibels. US navy says its use is vital in helping to detect super-quiet submarines.
Since 2002, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the two civilian agencies charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act, have urged the Navy to undertake alternative training practices to minimize damage to marine life, such as using bubble curtains or other containers to minimize blast impacts, or conducting the training in quarries, lakes or the open ocean rather than in the waters of Puget Sound.
Navy Requests LOA for Keyport Range Complex Extension
On July 3, 2008, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service provided public notice that the U.S. Navy has applied to NMFS for a five-year Letter of Authorization -LOA for the incidental harassment of marine mammals incidental to the research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) activities within the NAVSEA NUWC Keyport Range Complex Extension. The Navy wants the LOA to cover the period September 2009 through April 2014. If granted, the LOA would be issued under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The Navy's application further explains that "the mission activities conducted within the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Keyport Range Complex and the associated proposed extensions that could result in Level B harassment and possibly Level A harassment."

There are between 700 and 4,000 stranding events per year. Adding the stress of Surtass LFA that transmits signals as powerful as 215 decibels when a whale's eardrums can explode at 180 decibels. And Navy Sonar Experts reporting that marine mammals can hear these transmissions over 300 miles away the number of stranding events will raise and extinction will come faster. The justification for the probable extinction of multiple marine species is that the US navy says its use is vital in helping to detect super-quiet submarines.

This technology could mean the end of whales in our oceans in our lifetime.
Another issue not addressed within the draft EIS/OEIS NWTRC is the effect on the magnetic fields, magma and geological faults within a geologically active region. Repeated undersea sonic pulses from 20 # bombs and frequency penetration could unzip a huge volcanic ridge off the west coast from Vancouver Island south to Oregon.
It has been discovered that sound pulses fired into a similar Indonesian volcanic ridge for oil exploration unleashed the 2004 Tsunami.