Environmentalists contend that the Navy's use of active sonar is hurting and perhaps killing whales by sending out high-pitched tones.
They say studies show the piercing underwater sounds cause whales to flee in panic or to dive too deeply.
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Suit settled on whales and sonar
Environmentalists and the Navy each claim victory. The Supreme Court recently decided a similar case.
The Nation
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 04, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 99 words Type of Material: Correction
Whales and sonar: In the Dec. 28 Section A, an article about the Dec. 26 settlement of a lawsuit involving the Navy's use of sonar said the Navy had agreed to pay $1.1 million in legal fees for a sonar case that had been decided in November by the U.S. Supreme Court. The fees are for the case settled Dec. 26 and a third sonar case. The article also said the Navy had agreed to mitigation measures to protect whales. The settlement did not include any new measures, but the Navy has pledged to abide by previously announced measures.
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Whales have been found beached in Greece, the Canary Islands and the Bahamas after sonar was used in the areas, and necropsies have shown signs of internal bleeding near the ears.
The Navy disputes this and says sonar training is essential for sailors to be prepared to detect super-quiet diesel submarines that are being purchased or built by rogue Third World nations, including Iran and North Korea.
In the settlement, filed before U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in Los Angeles, the Navy agreed to pay $1.1 million in attorney fees for the case that was decided by the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs are largely the same in both cases.
In addition to the NRDC, plaintiffs were the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Cetacean Society International, the Ocean Futures Society, the League for Coastal Protection and Jean-Michel Cousteau.
Several months before the current case was filed in 2005, the Navy, under pressure from environmental groups, submitted a plan to the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration that was meant to limit the whales' exposure to sonar.
In the case that went to the Supreme Court, Cooper had called the Navy's measures inadequate.
The judge ordered the Navy to avoid using sonar within 12 miles of the coast and in areas where marine mammals congregate. She also said crews must turn off the high-intensity sonar when a marine mammal was spotted within 1.2 miles of a ship.
In January, President Bush moved to exempt the Navy from key environmental laws to override the judge's restrictions. That led to the high court's November decision.
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tony.perry@latimes.com
