A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Navy from deploying a new sonar system, siding with environmentalists who say its powerful sound pulses could harm whales and other marine mammals. The two sides are due back in court this week to argue the case, which has focused international attention on the threat that noise may pose to marine life.
Navy engineers have spent decades and millions of dollars designing the new sonar, which is towed behind a ship and uses low-frequency sound blasts to detect enemy submarines hundreds of kilometers away. But plans to deploy the system--known as SURTASS LFA--became entangled in controversy, as other types of military sonar were linked to the deaths or live strandings of whales. The Navy has concluded, for instance, that a different sonar system probably played a role in the March 2000 beachings of at least 16 whales in the Bahamas, although exactly how sound may injure or disorient whales isn't understood (ScienceNOW, 7 January. Extensive studies show that the new system is unlikely to affect most whales, the Navy says. As a result, last July government regulators gave the Navy needed environmental permits in exchange for a promise to limit the new sonar's use to offshore and nonpolar areas. In August, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups challenged those permits, saying regulators had downplayed the sonar's threat.
On 31 October, Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte agreed, ordering the Navy to at least temporarily halt deployment. "The possibility that the stranding in the Bahamas, and other strandings, could foretell similar injuries ... is very troubling," she wrote, concluding that whales would at least " be harassed by the extremely loud and far-traveling ... sonar." She ordered both sides back to court on 7 November to discuss plans that might better balance environmental and military concerns.
Navy officials are still studying the decision. Observers predict that, whatever the outcome, judges are likely to hear more cases about ocean noise. Last month, they note, a judge ordered the National Science Foundation to halt a research cruise that used sound to map the sea floor after the discovery of two dead whales (ScienceNOW, 29 October). And officials in the Canary Islands are currently investigating the recent deaths of more than a dozen whales that occurred after a naval exercise.
--DAVID MALAKOFF
Related sites
U.S. Navy: SURTASS LFA
NRDC: Active Sonar Threatens Whales
