Navy to go full-steam ahead with sonar plans

Florida Times-Union ^ | 1/27/7 | CAREN BURMEISTER

[SmithL]

The decision came despite a lawsuit that says the training will harm marine life.

The Navy announced this week that it will perform mid-range sonar exercises off the U.S. coast, including off of Jacksonville's beaches, for two years despite an environmental group's lawsuit insisting the Navy comply with federal laws that protect whales and other marine mammals.

Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said Tuesday that he was tapping a national defense exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act that will allow mid-frequency active sonar use during major training exercises. Congress included the exemption in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2004.

The Navy has been using mid-range sonar, which generates loud underwater sounds across thousands of square miles of ocean, in a training range off the coast of Northeast Florida, which extends from close to the shoreline to hundreds of miles offshore.

The area includes habitat for some of the rarest whales in the world, including the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, some of which are presently in their winter calving season and have been sighted recently off the coast of the beaches.

Mid-range sonar training exercises prepare sailors for deployment in the Navy's anti-submarine warfare program and are "absolutely essential" to protect their lives and defend the nation, Naval officials say.

. . . The Natural Resources Defense Council, a national, non-profit group of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists who focus on public health and the environment, sued the Navy in 2005, charging that it's violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal Endangered Species Act. Among other things, the suit states that the Navy has "ignored requests for a safe and sensible resolution of the problem."

[SmithL]

Can you hear me now?

[EagleUSA]

...a national, non-profit group of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists who focus on public health and the environment....
------
This says it all. Liberals = troublemakers. It is their profession.

[Wildbill22]

Let me see,,, what is more important. Maintaining the state of the are in weaponry, or saving a whale...hmmm,,, Naaa, go ahead, save the whale and lose the edge we have/had against Russian and Chinese SLBM subs and let them nuke New York or LA when China goes for Taiwan or Vladimir Zhirinovsky decides to go for Alaska. We don't need those liberal bastions in NY or LA anyway, and afterwords the left might find the need to defend ourselves a little more important.

[stboz]

For some reason, The Knights Who Say Niii" come to mind.

[CottShop]

battleship canon shots cause loud noises that cause seagulls to poop unexpectedly, so cannons are out too I guess.

The following link does not relate to this thread http://sacredscoop.com

[stm]

[martin_fierro]

Sounds, er, good.

[grobdriver]

Go NAVY!

[familyop]

There are about as many beached whales down there, even when the Navy isn't using sonar.

[BIGLOOK]

Law suits have been filed against the Navy over the testing of sonar for decades now. None have enjoined the Russians or any other entity though.

Once I asked a whale hugger for evidence that other marine life was harmed.....why just whales? All I got was blubber.

[Jacquerie]

From Horowitz's Discover the Network:

"Moreover, it is estimated that NRDC received $2.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the first three years of the Bush administration. NRDC, which accused President Bush of attempting the "rollback of almost every major environmental law on the books," subsequently used the EPA money to finance anti-Bush radio spots in battleground states prior to the 2004 presidential election."

Once again, our tax dollars fund the left.

[Chode]

this is whats in my lake, now and again... the ultimate fish finder. IIRC it's from a 688 class boat Seneca Lake Navy SONAR Test Facility

[mc5cents]

Go Navy!

Anchors Aweigh Boys!

[Bottom_Gun]

hehehe...put them in the water, single ping-high power. Problem solved.

[IonImplantGuru]

this is whats in my lake, now and again... the ultimate fish finder. IIRC it's from a 688 class boat ...

Well, Chode, I *was* going to fire off a stinging reply to you, flaming you for posting pics possibly harmful to national security. Then I followed your link and see it's from the publicly available Seneca Lake facility website! LOL!
Recall that when the San Francisco ran into that sea-mount a few years back, and pictures of the damaged boat in drydock were published - without the sonar dome area being draped for security - a number of site owners were contacted by the Navy and asked to delete the pictures!
"Do as I say! Not as I do!"

[Chode]

yup, but it wasn't always so... for YEARS it was all very hush-hush. just like the nuclear weapons storage facility up on the hill at Romulus when it was there. now it's open to the public for hunting.

[Conservative Infidel]

By the time "the left might find the need to defend ourselves a little more important"... it will be WAY too late to do anything about it.

[MelonFarmerJ]

.....pics possibly harmful to national security....

Forty years ago, on arrival at our new station, which involved National Security activities and which will remain unspoken here, our division chief advised us, to wit: ".....the Commies pretty much know what we have here and what we are doing with it, what we never want them to learn is how well we are doing it..."

[Chode]

i heard that...

[Cold Heart]

I was walking up the ladder to the focsl head and a gull flew by and bulls eyed the coffee cup in my hand.
Looked like somebody had dashed my black coffee with cream.

[CottShop]

lol someonem ust have it out for us- twice I've be3n poo'd on by gulls- reminds me of the old line "Birdie birdie in the sky why'd you do that in my eye?"

[CottShop]

The only reason the U.S is targeted for lawsuits is because we're the only one guillible enough to say 'whoops- sorry- here's a billion dollars for the fine"