Two-year exemption allows U.S. Navy to continue sonar trainings
In a saga lasting longer than Moby Dick, the U.S. Navy will be allowed to train with sonar for two more years, despite evidence that the technology’s use has injured and killed whales and other creatures of the deep. The Defense Department has provided an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so the Navy can undertake an environmental impact study. Which is sort of like letting someone shoot a guy to see how it affects him, but we digress. “We cannot stop training for the next two years,” said a Navy rep. “That would put our sailors … at considerable risk.” But others say it’s possible to promote both national security and marine health: “The Navy has more than enough room in the oceans to train effectively without injuring or killing endangered whales and other marine species,” said an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has sued the Navy over its sonar use. Man, what is it with green groups and their obsession with “the law”?
