Navy to limit some training that harms whales in Pacific

The US Navy has agreed to limit its use of sonar that may inadvertently harm whales and dolphins in waters near Hawaii and California.

The Navy additionally gained’t be capable of exceed a set variety of main coaching workouts within the channel between Maui and the Massive Island and on the western aspect of the Huge Island.

The Navy’s testing plan could have proved disruptive to feeding areas, migratory corridors and places where the animals reside, he said.

The settlement between the Navy, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice was signed Monday by U.S. District Judge Oki Mollway in Honolulu.

“Here in Hawaii, it’s all around the Hawaiian Islands with the areas that we protected through today’s agreement focused on Maui County and around the Big Island”, said Henkin. By reaching a settlement, the Navy preserved key national security missions, he said.

“If a whale or dolphin can’t hear, it can’t survive”, Henkin said.

The U.S. Navy estimates it inadvertently kills 155 whales and dolphins off the coasts of Hawaii and Southern California in five years. “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”.

The ruling set the stage for settlement talks, Henkin stated. The Navy also estimated that 9 million incidents of marine mammal disturbances could alter feeding and breeding activities in the 120,000-square-mile Southern California testing zone.

“Numerous beaked whale strandings and deaths have been linked to naval uses of high-intensity sonar”, said Bill Rossiter, executive director at Advocacy, Science & Grants of Cetacean Society global.

The long-running war between the whales and the United States Navy is over.

Off the coast of Southern California, the Navy is banned from using mid-frequency sonar between Santa Catalina Island and San Nicolas Island, also near blue-whale habitat off San Diego.

For decades, conservationists have fought against the use of sonar in areas frequented by large marine mammals. Activists say this finally affords vulnerable whales and dolphins some much needed safety. That will protect critical Hawaiian monk seal habitat and small populations of endangered false killer whales.

The new restrictions will remain in effect under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Navy surface vessels must use “extreme caution” and travel at a safe speed to minimize the risk of ship strikes in humpback whale habitat. And a Navy explosives training exercise near San Diego killed at least three dolphins in 2011. This type of sonar was developed specifically to detect submarines as the older high-frequency (7KHz and up) sonar had insufficient range to find these threats. Additionally, the number of sonar exercises around Hawaii will be strictly limited.

The settlement comes after Earthjustice and different environmental teams sued in 2013, hard the fisheries service’s choice to permit the coaching.