Posted on 09/01/2007 11:11:08 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
National security is more important than protecting whales or other marine life that could be harmed during exercises scheduled for this month off the coast of San Diego County, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.
The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction issued Aug. 6 by a lower court. The injunction barred the Navy from conducting sonar training off Southern California until a lawsuit brought by environmentalists is resolved.
The appellate ruling is a setback for a coalition of environmentalists led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is suing to force the Navy to increase precautions for whales and dolphins while conducting anti-submarine training with sonar.
The appellate decision does not affect a separate lawsuit filed by the California Coastal Commission, which in January ruled that the Navy's protections were insufficient.
When a federal judge in Los Angeles issued the injunction last month, she said it was a “near certainty” that marine life would be imperiled by the Navy's sonar drills.
But in his majority opinion yesterday, Circuit Court Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said that military preparedness during wartime outweighs the need to protect marine life.
“The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales. But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war in two countries,” Kleinfeld wrote.
At issue is the Navy's use of mid-frequency active sonar – high-energy sound waves that travel long distances to detect diesel-electric submarines used by more than 40 nations. Whales and dolphins have beached themselves and died during such sonar training off Hawaii, the Bahamas, the Canary Islands and Greece.
The appellate ruling allows the Navy to keep preparing its forces before they deploy to the Western Pacific, the Middle East and other parts of the world, according to a statement from U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii.
“The ability to detect and track potentially hostile submarines is a critical skill that cannot be duplicated in the classroom or by simulation,” said Capt. Scott Gureck, a Navy spokesman.
The legal wrangling with environmentalists has not caused any sonar training to be canceled or postponed, Navy officials said. A series of 11 exercises is planned for the next two years off San Diego and near San Clemente Island.
Joel Reynolds, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles, said he is confident that environmentalists will prevail in putting a halt to the Navy's “blatant and ongoing violations of law.”
It would be interesting to know if any of these environmental groups that seek to block military training are getting any money from foreign nations - say China for example.
I see one of H.W.’s appointees survived 16 years in the abyss(mal) 9th Circuit and still has some sanity remaining.
For once I hope the Supremes affirm a ruling of the 9th Circuit.
Why don’t they just tell flipper to pass the word to the whales?
Do you have any links to show stuff about mammal suicide, as far as fish go? LOL (I’m Serious)
The 9th Circuit gets something right. Someone must have been praying.
IMO the verdict is still out on this. I’m all for the Navy using the latest tech for it’s purposes, but I’m not in favor of killing or even damaging marine life to accomplish their goals.
I don’t know enough about it to know which is the right decision here. I do hope that if the Navy does use the new sonar, it is found to have no effect on Marine life.
It’s my opinion that the environmental folks have gone overboard once again on this, but like I said I’m no expert on this.
I say go Navy, but limit the first tests in order to observe any ill effects. If none are seen, then increase the frequency of them so that it can be clear every step of the way that marine life doesn’t suffer a negative impact.
In this manner, both sides can be assured of the best outcome.
It had occurred to me that it might be possible to alter the frequency of the pings out of the whale’s range of hearing. Would that sort of option be possible?
They finally get one right!
There is lots on the human mammal, I don’t know much about the other mammals though.
The Left doesn't need evidence. They only need to frighten the sheeple. Anyway, no harm done right? The 80 million who died because of Rachael Carson? Well, that was just an unfortunate mistake.
“Today, dozens of countries — including North Korea and Iran — have extremely quiet diesel-electric submarines, and more than 180 of them operate in the Pacific,” said Vice Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet. “Active sonar is the best system we have to detect and track them.”
***The 9th Circuit gets something right. Someone must have been praying.***
Even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while.
If the verdict’s out on this, the verdict’s still out on the flat earth theory. I have no idea how many millions of dollars the Navy has spent on this non-issue over the past 20-30 years, but it has to be a huge number. This thing has been going on in a serious way since the 1st Reagan administration.
But, even if it hadn’t been going on for so long and there was some actual evidence to support the envir-whacko claims, it would still be pretty hard to argue with a straight face that a few lost whales was worth jeopardizing American national security.
I’m continue to be amazed at how little some Americans value the work that our military must do to keep us all safe.
Wow. I can’t believe they actually made the right decision for once!
As am I, but I would hope you haven't jumped to the conclusion that I fall into that category. If so, you've made serious mistake in judgment.
Just because some of us have not been tuned into this over the last thirty years, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t reasonable people. To equate my reticense to come down on either side to that of flat earthers is childish.
I am open to you providing any information you have to butress your case. So far all you’e actually provided is insults.
Just because something has been worked on for thirty years, doesn’t mean it has existed in it’s present form for that period of time, or has been tested in the ocean to prove it’s success.
Why don’t you tell us more oh mighty sage.
And I would suggest that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is overturned more times than not. This may or may not be a right decison by them.
Look, I said that I lean more heavily toward the Navy in this instance and you should have accepted that.
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