Bush allows U.S. Navy to train with sonar

Published 10:38 pm Wednesday, January 16, 2008

EVERETT — Washington environmentalists and scientists Wednesday said they were disappointed that the Bush administration used national security as a reason to exempt the U.S. Navy for using sonar in training, something they say could harm whales and other marine mammals.

“Basically, my experience with the Navy is they would rather not have any fettering at all because they are defending the country,” said Kenneth Balcomb of the Friday Harbor-based Center for Whale Research.

President Bush “makes decisions that in my view are ill thought out,” Balcomb said. “Of course, he is the commander in chief and I’m sure there is exaggerated input from the military.”

Balcomb, a marine biologist and former Navy lieutenant during the Vietnam era, said he’s convinced that the Everett-based USS Shoup “terrorized” whales and porpoises in 2005 when it used sonar in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Neither the Navy nor federal National Marine Fisheries Service blamed the ship.

On Whidbey Island, Howard Garrett, the head of the Orca Network, said the main victims are deep-diving whales that become frightened at sonar use and surface too fast, which can cause serious injuries or death.

The Bush administration on Tuesday exempted the Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using the anti-submarine sonar in its training off the California coast. The White House on Wednesday announced that Bush had signed the exemption to the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Earlier this month, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Navy to create a 12-mile, no-sonar zone along the California Coast and to post trained lookouts to watch for marine mammals before and during exercises.

The judge ruled that sonar would have to be shut down when mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards.

The presidential exemption lifts those requirements from the Navy.

The Navy said the exemption applies to a series of exercises scheduled to take place off the California coast through the rest of this month.

The Navy already applies 29 mitigation measures approved by federal environmental regulators when using active sonar, and these will remain in place, the Navy said in the statement.

The Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the destroyers USS Shoup and USS Momsen are scheduled to train off California later this month in preparation for a deployment soon.

“Use of sonar is part of critical, integrated training that must be done in the Navy’s operating area off the coast of San Diego to take advantage of Southern California’s bathymetric features and its extensive ranges, airfields and other infrastructure necessary for effective training,” according to the Navy statement.

About half the Navy’s fleet will receive its most critical, “graduate level” training there before deployment overseas, it said.

The military has to do its work in defense of the nation, Garrett said.

“All we’re asking for is mitigate, mitigate mitigate — do everything possible to protect whales and other mammals,” he said.

Garrett agrees that the Navy is trying to “be good citizens. We have spoken with them and we’ve had meetings. I’m sure they have high regard for the whales and protecting the whales. It’s very difficult.”

On the other hand, Garrett said that sonar “pings” disorient and could kill or damage the hearing of orca and other whales.

“We can’t argue not to use the sonars,” Garrett said, “but with all due respect to the office of president, how would he know the damage that could result?”

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.