Supreme Court divided over sonar case

[unhappycamper]

Supreme Court divided over sonar case
By Mark Sherman - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 9, 2008 6:43:08 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over how to resolve a long-running dispute over whether environmental laws may be used to limit the Navy’s use of sonar to protect whales.

The court heard arguments in the Bush administration’s appeal of court rulings that restrict sonar in submarine-hunting naval training exercises off the Southern California coast. Sonar can interfere with whales’ ability to navigate and communicate.

The training is “vitally important” for sailors who may be deployed around the world in search of enemy submarines, Solicitor General Gregory Garre told the justices. Garre said there is scant evidence over 40 years of exercises off the Pacific Coast that the Navy’s sonar harms whales and dolphins.

Richard Kendall, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the sonar’s piercing sound was comparable to the noise of a jet engine magnified 2,000 times in the courtroom.

A species of whales called beaked whales are particularly susceptible to harm from sonar, which can cause them to strand themselves onshore, Kendall said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_sonar_100808/%2e