WASHINGTON — Weighing the balance between military readiness and environmental protection, the Supreme Court said Monday that it would decide whether the U.S. Navy must limit its use of high-powered sonar off the California coast to protect whales and other marine mammals.
The justices voted to hear the Navy's appeal of a judge's order that requires ships to turn down their sonar whenever whales or dolphins are spotted within 2,200 yards -- 1.25 miles. A modified version of the judge's order will remain in effect during the appeal, but the high court's decision to hear the case is a victory for the Navy and a setback for environmentalists.
The intense sound waves from the sonar are believed to frighten, injure and possibly kill whales. But the two sides differ greatly on the extent of the effects.
Environmentalists point to studies of dead whales that washed ashore in the Bahamas, Canary Islands and Madeira islands after the Navy conducted war games nearby. Some of the animals appeared to have died of hemorrhages in and around their ears, brains and lungs. They also said the Navy's own studies forecast that training exercises off the California coast would "significantly disturb" an estimated 170,000 marine mammals.
But the Navy said training exercises using sonar have been conducted for 40 years off California, and they "produced no evidence of sonar-related harm to any marine mammal." Of special note, there are no reports of dead whales after these exercises, they said.
In their appeal, administration lawyers argued that the judges in California had overstepped their authority by restricting the Navy's operations. They described "anti-submarine warfare [as] a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game" that requires days of carefully tracking sound waves. A requirement to suddenly shut down its sonar equipment "cripples the Navy's ability to conduct realistic" training exercises, they told the court.
Last year, the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica and four other environmental groups went to court in Los Angeles seeking limits on the Navy's use of sonar during a series of exercises planned off the California coast.
They relied heavily on the Navy's own studies to show the probable harm to marine mammals, including the vulnerable beaked whale.
