|
|
Kimiko Martinez, Natural Resources Defense Council, 310-434-2344 or 310-500-9505 (cell), kmartinez@nrdc.org
David Henkin, Earthjustice, 808-599-2436, ext. 6614, dhenkin@earthjustice.org
Marjorie Ziegler, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, (808) 593-0255, mz@conservehi.org
Amey Owen, Animal Welfare Institute, 202-446-2128, amey@awionline.org
Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 632-5308, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org
Marsha Green, Ocean Mammal Institute, (610) 698-6140, mlgreen@pacifier.com
HONOLULU (September 14, 2015) —A federal court today entered an order settling two cases challenging the U.S. Navy’s training and testing activities off the coasts of Southern California and Hawai`i, securing long-sought protections for whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals by limiting Navy activities in vital habitat. The settlement stems from the court’s earlier finding that the Navy’s activities illegally harm more than 60 separate populations of whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions.
For the first time, the Navy has agreed to put important habitat for numerous populations off-limits to dangerous mid-frequency sonar training and testing and the use of powerful explosives. The settlement aims to manage the siting and timing of Navy activities, taking into account areas of vital importance to marine mammals, such as reproductive areas, feeding areas, migratory corridors, and areas in which small, resident populations are concentrated.
Many of the conservation organizations who brought the lawsuits have been sparring legally with the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service—the agency charged with protecting marine mammals—for more than a decade, demanding that the Navy and Fisheries Service comply with key environmental laws by acknowledging that the Navy’s activities seriously harm marine mammals and taking affirmative steps to lessen that harm.
"We can protect our fleet and safeguard our whales," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose lawyers challenged the Navy’s activities in Southern California and Hawai`i on behalf of NRDC, Cetacean Society International, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Pacific Environment and Resources Center, and Michael Stocker. "This settlement shows the way to do both, ensuring the security of U.S. Navy operations while reducing the mortal hazard to some of the most majestic creatures on Earth. Our Navy will be the better for this, and so will the oceans our sailors defend."
"If a whale or dolphin can’t hear, it can’t survive," said David Henkin, an attorney for the national legal organization Earthjustice, who brought the initial challenge to the Navy’s latest round of training and testing on behalf of Conservation Council for Hawai`i, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Ocean Mammal Institute. "We challenged the Navy’s plan because it would have unnecessarily harmed whales, dolphins, and endangered marine mammals, with the Navy itself estimating that more than 2,000 animals would be killed or permanently injured. By agreeing to this settlement, the Navy acknowledges that it doesn’t need to train in every square inch of the ocean and that it can take reasonable steps to reduce the deadly toll of its activities."
Scientific studies have documented the connection between high-intensity mid-frequency sounds, including Navy sonar, and serious impacts to marine mammals ranging from strandings and deaths to cessation of feeding and habitat avoidance and abandonment. Nonetheless, until now the Navy has refused to set aside biologically important areas to minimize such harm to vulnerable marine mammal populations.
Until it expires in late 2018, the agreement will protect habitat for the most vulnerable marine mammal populations, including endangered blue whales for which waters off Southern California are a globally important feeding area; and numerous small, resident whale and dolphin populations off Hawai`i, for which the islands are literally an oasis, their only home.
"This settlement proves what we’ve been saying all along," said Marsha Green, president of Ocean Mammal Institute. "The Navy can meet its training and testing needs and, at the same time, provide significant protections to whales and dolphins by limiting the use of sonar and explosives in vital habitat."
"This agreement will enhance the welfare of dozens of species that call the Pacific Ocean home by extending vital protections to places they need to rest, feed, reproduce and care for their young," said Susan Millward, executive director at the Animal Welfare Institute.
Southern California provides some of the most important foraging areas anywhere on the globe for vulnerable species such as endangered blue and fin whales, and contains important habitat for small populations of beaked whales, a family of species that is considered acutely sensitive to naval active sonar, with documented injury and mortality.
"Numerous beaked whale strandings and deaths have been linked to naval uses of high-intensity sonar," said Bill Rossiter, executive director for Advocacy, Science & Grants of Cetacean Society International. "Now, beaked whale populations in Southern California that have been suffering from the Navy’s use of sonar will be able to find areas of refuge where sonar will be off-limits."
Key terms of the settlement applicable to Southern California include:
"Ship strikes pose a serious risk to blue whales and other large whales off the coast of California," said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. "We expect this settlement will help save lives by lowering that risk when Navy vessels reduce their speed in important blue whale habitat and migratory corridors."
In the vast Pacific Ocean, Hawai`i represents an oasis for numerous, vulnerable populations of toothed whales, such as spinner dolphins, melon-headed whales, and endangered false killer whales. Studies have shown that they are distinct from other populations in the tropical Pacific and even, in some cases, from populations associated with other islands, with only a few hundred individuals in existence. The Big Island of Hawai`i and the Maui 4-Island Complex host many of these populations.
"Some of the marine mammals threatened by Navy activities are already on the brink of extinction, such as the Hawaiian monk seal, our state mammal and one of the world’s most endangered species," said Conservation Council for Hawai`i’s Marjorie Ziegler. "This settlement helps protect marine habitat the Fisheries Service just last month identified as essential to the seal’s survival."
Key terms of the settlement applicable to Hawai`i include:
"This is a huge victory for critically endangered species like Hawai`i’s insular false killer whale, which is down to only about 150 animals," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
For more details, please see the PDF file below
"The lawsuit discussed above was initiated by the Ocean Mammal Institute in September, 2013. Other plaintiffs joined the case which has now been settled almost exactly two years later with the navy agreeing to limit potentially harmful training and testing activities in biologically important areas between southern California and Hawaii. I post this in order to let concerned individuals know that small organizations and/or coalitions of a few people can make a difference in important environmental issues. In fact Mark Dowie in his book "A History of Environmentalism at the End of the Twentieth Century" concludes that most of the important environmental issues today are tackled by either small organizations or a very small group of people who care intensely about an issue. So let’s all get busy working on those issues that we care most deeply about. Everyone can make a difference. Best of Luck to All!!!"
-Marsha Green
FYI: NOAA NFMS Letter of Authorization for Navy Training with Sonar in Pacific Through August 2015 (PDF file: 10 4 pages), allows incidental taking of thousands of marine mammals.
Read initial report about this at http://www.kuam.com/story/28628542/2015/03/27/sonar-was-being-tested-when-whales-were-beached
Update on April 22, 2015: http://www.kuam.com/story/28702008/noaa-still-looking-into-stranding-of-whales-in-merizo