Court upholds whale protection in Navy exercises

[struggle4progress]

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, March 1, 2008

(03-01) 16:46 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court has ruled that the Navy must protect endangered whales from the potentially lethal effects of underwater sonar during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast, rejecting President Bush's attempt to exempt the exercises from environmental laws.

In a Friday night ruling rushed into print ahead of the next scheduled exercise on Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision that no emergency existed that would justify Bush's intervention.

The Navy is engaged in "long-planned, routine training exercises" and has had ample time to take the steps that the law requires - conduct a thorough review of the environmental consequences and propose effective measures to minimize the harm to whales and other marine mammals, the three-judge panel said.

The court noted that the Navy has been conducting similar exercises for years, has agreed in the past to restrictions like the ones it is now challenging, and was sued by environmental groups in the current case nearly a year ago. The lower-court judge reviewed the evidence and found nothing to support the Navy's claim that the protective measures would interfere with vital training or hamper national security, the court said ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/01/MNDPVC5VC.DTL

[orangefire]

1. At this pace we won't have whales in 100 years

it's terrible.

[ben_meyers]

2. If we hadn't shifted from whale oil to petroleum oil

we would have run out of whales 100 years ago.

[malakai2]

3. Now here's one where I don't see a stick to ensure compliance

Situations like this with just about any other department or agency, with similar court orders, are enforceable by threat of prison time for people who disregard the order. I've always wondered how that would be possible when it comes to DOD violations. If POTUS and DOD claim it's necessary for national security, I imagine they would proceed as planned and just refuse to release evidence of any violation. If a private citizen had such evidence, given the national security classification, I imagine the evidence would still not see the light of day, and if it somehow did, who does the court threaten with a prison term?