-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Cheryl Magill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Elfrad-Group] Judge puts Navy sonar probe on hold to protect whales Date sent: Fri, 01 Nov 2002 08:20:16 -0800
New - See this and other headlines at http://www.listen.to/lfas viewpoints. Thanks. Cheryl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------- Judge puts Navy sonar probe on hold to protect whales By Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times, 11/1/2002 A federal judge prohibited the US Navy yesterday from combing the world's oceans with a powerful new sonar, ruling that the booming sounds meant to detect enemy submarines could cause irreparable harm to whales. The temporary injunction bans a type of low-frequency sonar that has not been proven to cause deaths of marine mammals. Although the ruling could allow the Navy to resume using the sonar in some places, US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. LaPorte imposed a worldwide ban until Navy officials and environmental specialists can agree on a list of spots where sailors can deploy the sonar without harming marine life. In her 58-page opinion, the judge, who is based in San Francisco, agreed with the Navy that even a temporary peacetime ban on the low-frequency sonar system could hamper military preparedness. She gave the Navy and environmental groups that filed the lawsuit until Nov. 7 to report back to her with an interim solution. The Navy and federal marine fisheries officials declined immediate comment. But environmental groups were elated by the preliminary injunction. They had sued to overturn the Bush administration's decision last July that gave the Navy permission to ''harass'' or injure whales in training missions using sonar designed to search for super-quiet diesel submarines. ''There was no justification for giving the Navy a blank check to operate this sonar in 75 percent of the world's oceans,'' said Joel Reynolds, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. If allowed to continue, he said, the sonar system would have ''threatened marine life on a staggering and unprecedented geographic scale.'' Yesterday's ruling is the latest legal victory for environmental groups trying to rein in powerful sonar and other loud sounds that science is increasingly linking to deaths and injuries of marine mammals. The Bush administration is pushing to exempt military activities from a variety of environmental constraints. In September, a federal judge rejected arguments that sonar use in the deep ocean was exempt from the National Environmental Policy Act. In early 2000, 16 beaked whales beached themselves in the Bahamas in a mass-stranding that the Navy and other authorities have linked to bursts of midfrequency sonar. A similar mass die-off of whales occurred in September in the Canary Islands, following naval operations by warships from the United States and about a dozen NATO allies. ''From a scientific point of view, there is very little question that, given the right set of circumstances, active sonar can kill marine life,'' said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States. Yet military officials point out that naval operations in the Bahamas and Canary Islands were not using the new Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System banned yesterday. That system broadcasts low-frequency sonic waves through 18 speakers dangled behind a ship on cables hundreds of feet long. This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 11/1/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. ------- End of forwarded message ------- -------------------------------------- Steve Wingate, Webmaster ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com Latest Update: Cydonia in 3-D http://www.anomalous-images.com/Odyssey/Cydonia_3-d.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/ <A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
