Navy Allowed to Kill/Injure Nearly 12 Million Whales, Dolphins, Other Marine Mammals in Pacific
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by mcar (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).
Source: Truth-Out by Dahr Jamail
What if you were told the US Navy is legally permitted to harass, injure or kill nearly 12 million whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea lions and seals across the North Pacific Ocean over a five-year period? It is true, and over one-quarter of every tax dollar you pay is helping to fund it.
A multistate, international citizen watchdog group called the West Coast Action Alliance (WCAA), tabulated numbers that came straight from the Navy's Northwest Training and Testing EIS (environmental impact statement) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Letters of Authorization for incidental "takes" of marine mammals issued by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. "It is outrageous to think that humans have quantified all of the impacts their actions cause to the marine environment."
A "take" is a form of harm to an animal that ranges from harassment, to injury, and sometimes to death. Many wildlife conservationists see even "takes" that only cause behavior changes as injurious, because chronic harassment of animals that are feeding or breeding can end up harming, or even contributing to their deaths if they are driven out of habitats critical to their survival.
Karen Sullivan, a spokesperson for the WCAA, is a former endangered species biologist and assistant regional director at the US Fish and Wildlife Service; she is now retired. "The numbers are staggering," she told Truthout, speaking about the number of marine mammals the Navy is permitted to take. "When you realize the same individual animals can be harassed over and over again as they migrate to different areas, there is no mitigation that can make up for these losses except limiting the use of sonar and explosives where these animals are trying to live."
Yet the aforementioned staggering numbers are still lower-end estimates, as they do not include dozens of other military projects in the same areas, such as construction using underwater pile driving, and they only apply to marine mammals, not other species. According to the WCAA, the numbers "do not include takes to endangered and threatened seabirds, fish, sea turtles or terrestrial species impacted by Navy activities, using sonar, explosives, underwater and surface drones, sonobuoys, ships, submarines, aircraft, or troops training on 68 beaches and state parks in western Washington..." "The oceans are delicate and finite; we know now that there is a limit to what the seas can provide," Stolarcyk said. "Oceans are not blue deserts [devoid of life] and should not be treated as such; we must tread carefully, for the footprint we leave will be a lasting one."
Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36037-the-us-navy-s-mass-destruction-of-marine-life
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)Obama backed this abomination. Was anyone surprised? Really?
reddread
(6,896 posts)laying this sort of Defense related animal cruelty at the foot of a given President might be mistaken for exonerating all the others. What the imperial complex wants is MUCH more important than the lives of miserable marine mammals.
just check in with the Family about Dominion.
its all good.
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)"During his campaign, President Obama promised America he would oppose the killing of these magnificent creatures. Its time for you and me to hold him to that promise.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)Yes, he saiddddddddd he would but it was only words.
He's great at talking and giving speeches. He certainly came off smarter and more sophisticated than any RepubliCON ever was. But alas it was all only words.
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)It was almost like a song.
Sadly, the song is Cream's "What a Bringdown"
reddread
(6,896 posts)Peregrine Took
(7,412 posts)I feel sorry for those dogs.
As I recall his girls wanted a small dog - something small and cuddly
It was Ted Kennedy's idea for the water dogs. You never see them anymore. I bet they live in "crates" like so many dogs today do - except for videos or special events when they drag them around for show and tell.
The truth will come out some day.
trueblue2007
(17,202 posts)are you thinking you're in a GOP place of comfort? Why blame President Obama when this horrible action has been going on for DECADES???
ReRe
(10,597 posts).... STOPPING the slaughter!
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)This was a big deal among conservationists who were, believe
it or not, surprised and appalled at Obama's green light.
They would learn soon enough.
Pierce Brosnan led the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the fight:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/navy-training-testing-may-kill-whales-dolphins-082418197.html?ref=gs
http://madmikesamerica.com/2010/04/obama-administration-supports-hunting-killing-of-whales/
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)You're just flat out wrong. Stop drinking your tap water.
reddread
(6,896 posts)I have got to start paying attention.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)the Fracking Corps.
reddread
(6,896 posts)are we offshore fracking in marine sanctuaries yet?
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)Not as easy to relocate that search result these days,
but I sure wont forget that nugget.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)I feel sick reading this, how on Earth can it be stopped?
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)There is no way the American people will want to disband our navy. I don't think we'd get 10 percent of a yes from the population of voters.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)the freaking Navy, just to stop these projects. For godsake I come from a Navy family.
A better project would be to clean up the dying oceans, because the Navy is going to be floating on a dead sea someday if we don't do something now about it. A dying ocean is a far greater danger than anything else right now.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)it is a fundamental part of what they do.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)if they can't do that then they might as well disband.
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)but I know if we can go to the Moon we can figure out how to protect ourselves while not causing so much death and destruction. It would simply be a shift in mission to view our ocean and planet as something to protect rather than allowing so much 'collateral damage'.
I think all that military money can go into Earth preservation, and we would INSTANTLY have the cooperation and respect of most of the civilized world-- who are just as alarmed at seeing Earth changes as we are. We have to change our mission to creating a sustainable future NOW, we can't just give up.
DashOneBravo
(2,679 posts)When the budgets were tight.
You guys can yell bang bang, make pinging noises while running around on the sand .
ladjf
(17,320 posts)harun
(11,348 posts)ladjf
(17,320 posts)I can remember reading in the news for at least 10 or 15 yrs. that the navy was renewing their
sonar test in the ocean. I just don't understand why they have the need to do this for decades.
Also, oil exploration is creating loud explosions underwater.
Faux pas
(14,657 posts)Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Damn them to hell.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)non harmful Russian or Chinese navies.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I am so with Samuel Johnson:
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
(When are the citizens of this nation going to rise up as one and demand an end to such abominations?!?)
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)We need Bernie now more than ever!
chervilant
(8,267 posts)#NotMeUs
#DropOutHillary
libodem
(19,288 posts)All have cancer for all their trouble. Our planet is headed for distruction.
Kang Colby
(1,941 posts)Last edited Mon May 16, 2016, 09:02 PM - Edit history (1)
Truth out is just a tabloid blog. I think that's the same blog that published the fake Karl Rove indictment story ten years ago.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)several years time. Personally, I can recall articles on the subject at least as long as 15 years ago.
Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)Took it to google, without spending more than a second, found a similar one we all saw several years ago:
Navy raises sonar impact on dolphins, whales dramatically
Friday May 11, 2012 2:48 PM
New Navy estimates showing many more dolphins, whales and other marine mammals could be hurt by sonar off Hawaii and Southern California caused alarm among environmentalists on Friday. The Navy, for its part, emphasized those were worst-case estimates and that the numbers cover a much larger testing area than before.
The numbers are in the Navy's new draft environmental impact statement for exercises planned from 2014-2018. In it, the Navy says that, under its preferred alternative, sonar training and testing might unintentionally harm marine mammals 2.8 million times a year over five years.
"The numbers are staggering and there is absolutely no corresponding mitigation to account for this harm," Zak Smith, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told msnbc.com.
That's up from about 150,000 instances a year in the Navy's impact statement for 2009-2013, Smith added.
More:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/11/11659008-navy-raises-sonar-impact-on-dolphins-whales-dramatically
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Apparently the only sources you accept are corporate news sources, and the rest of us have learned to be skeptical of them in many situations.
DU'ers have trusted upon Truthout here for ages, without your approval. That's fine with us.
Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)WHEN CRABS ROAR
(3,813 posts)As we enter a new era to save our precious environment, seems like one of our main enemies is our own county.