Ethics Newsline®

Critics say extremely powerful sonar injures marine life; Navy says using sonar is only way to train for submarine warfare

LOS ANGELES
President Bush last week authorized the U.S. Navy to continue using extremely powerful sonar off the coast of southern California in upcoming war games, despite a court ruling saying sonar use there should be limited because it harms whales and other sea life.

Bush exempted the Navy based on the premise that national security trumps the ecological concerns, reports the Jurist, an online publication of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The Navy is involved in submarine warfare exercises and says the use of the sonar is essential for training sailors to detect quiet submarines, reports Los Angeles television station KNBC.

Ecologists and scientists argue that the sonar signals damage marine mammals’ hearing and brains and confuse whales, in some cases leading to bleeding and beaching of whales.

Late last week, a federal judge in Los Angeles temporarily set aside some of the restrictions in the original court order after Bush’s exemption was announced, but said she will consider arguments later this week before issuing a final ruling, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In related news, an Australian judge has banned the company that conducts Japan’s whale hunt from killing the animals in a segment of its hunting grounds off Antarctica, according to reports from the U.K. Press Association and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The move is expected to strain ties between Japan and Australia if the Japanese ignore the injunction and Australia attempts to enforce it.

The area in question has been designated a sanctuary by Australia, but Japan and many other nations do not recognize Australia’s territorial claim on the region.

Sources: Los Angles Times, Jan. 18 — Jurist, Jan. 16 — KNBC, Los Angeles, Jan. 16 — UPI, Jan. 16 — Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 19 — U.K. Press Association, Jan. 16.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 10, 2006 — Related Newsline Commentary, Aug. 9, 2004 — Related Newsline story, May 31, 1999 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 22, 1999 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 15, 1999.