Supreme Court Rules For Navy, Against Whales

COMMUNITY NEWS

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its first decision of the term today, and it's not the best of news for whales.

Last month, NRDC and its allies argued before the court on behalf of marine mammals that are threatened by Navy sonar exercises off the Southern California coast. Here's my account of the oral arguments and senior attorney Joel Reynolds' explanation of the legal and moral reasoning behind NRDC's fight. (You can get more background on the case in the video below.)

The Los Angeles Times, which has covered the case closely, reports on today's decision:

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a defeat to environmentalists today and cleared the way for the Navy to use high-powered sonar off the Southern California coast even if it poses a threat to whales and other marine mammals.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts said the Navy needs to train its crews to detect enemy submarines, and it cannot be forced to turn off its sonar when whales are spotted nearby. "The public interest in conducting training exercises with active sonar under realistic conditions plainly outweighs" the concerns voiced by environmentalists, he said for a 5-4 majority.

Roberts faulted judges in California for "second-guessing" the views of Navy leaders. "Where the public interest lies does not strike us as a close question," he said.

Roberts also questioned whether whales have indeed been harmed by sonar. He said the Navy had been operating off the California coast for 40 years "without a single documented sonar-related injury to any marine mammal."

The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups strongly disagreed. They say studies conducted around the world have shown that the piercing underwater sounds cause whales to flee in panic. These studies said some whales have beached themselves and have shown signs of bleeding in their ears as a result of high-powered sonar.

Today's ruling lifts a Los Angeles judge's order that required the Navy to turn off its sonar when whales or marine mammals were seen within 1.2 miles of a ship.

The Bush administration had urged the court to take up this case and rule quickly so the Navy could conduct training exercises scheduled in the next few months.

Obviously, this isn't what the folks at NRDC who've worked so hard to protect whales were hoping for. The decision means that marine mammals are more at risk of serious harm -- harm that could be avoided if the Navy would agree to reasonable safeguards and follow the law.

There's some silver lining, though. The Supreme Court's ruling is narrow enough that it leaves in place four of the safeguards imposed by lower courts. And the justices didn't overturn those courts' underlying determination that the Navy had likely violated the law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement before the exercises.

The Navy doesn't deny that sonar can be deadly to marine mammals, which use their sense of sound for everything from navigation to finding mates. Scientists have established a strong link between sonar use and whale deaths, and the U.S. military's own studies show that an estimated 170,000 marine mammals could be harmed by the Southern California training exercises. More than 500 would suffer permanent injury.

No one's arguing that the Navy shouldn't train its sailors and that the military shouldn't be ready to protect this country from any and all threats. But there are ways to practice that don't put precious marine life in danger. That's all that NRDC is asking for.

- Scott Dodd
Originally posted in the NRDC's Switchboard blog.

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