Save the Whales: Stop the Sonar
by Michele McKay

When whales were being hunted to near-extinction in the 1970s, high-profile “Save the Whales” campaigns helped stop the slaughter. According to Earthjustice and KAHEA, The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, whales need protection again – this time from the US Navy’s use of high-intensity, mid-frequency underwater sonar.

Lethal Sonar

Whales are sensitive mammals, and their acute sense of hearing is vital to every aspect of their lives: feeding, breeding, navigating, communicating, and avoiding predators. Underwater sonar blasts from US naval training exercises have caused tissue trauma, hemorrhage, permanent injury, strandings, and death to whales at sites around the world.

Nonetheless, the Navy plans to use sonar in its 2007 and 2008 RIMPAC Undersea Warfare Exercises within the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and near the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. These exercises will discharge sonar blasts 100,000 times more intense than those which stranded and killed whales in the Bahamas in 2002.

In its environmental assessment for the RIMPAC exercises, the Navy acknowledged that sonar is likely to impact the migration, surfacing, nursing, feeding, or sheltering behaviors of whales in Hawaiian waters. In January, 2007 the US Navy exempted itself from the Marine Mammal Protection Act in order to avoid being in violation of that law.

KAHEA director Marti Townsend says, "The Navy is not above the law. Just the reverse – as a government agency, the Navy should be setting an example."  

What You Can Do

Earthjustice has filed a legal challenge to the Navy’s planned use of sonar on behalf of KAHEA, the Ocean Mammal Institute, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Surfrider Foundation. These groups are also suing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for violating the Endangered Species Act.

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