According to an email received by Marsha Green, Ocean Mammal Institute, from Dr. Robert Gisiner, Office of Naval Research, the United States Navy is now planning to conduct further tests of the Low Frequency Active Sonar System known as SURTASS LFA. To review the correspondence between Dr. Green and Dr. Gisiner click here
These tests will probably target Sperm Whales in the Azores as the primary species. A search may be made for the very elusive Beaked Whales in the Azores or Dominica. The Navy may return to Hawai`i for further testing on Humpback Whales.
If the Navy returns to Hawai`i to follow up on the 1998 tests on Humpback Whales, Dr. Gisiner's email states that the Navy would like to achieve received levels (the intensity received by the whale) of 160 to 180 decibels (dB). In the 1998 tests off Hawai`i, very few whales received levels reaching 140 dB. The proposed new levels would, therefore be 10,000 times more intense than the levels causing whales to leave the 1998 testing area, which also happens to be a favorite breeding and calving area for the Humpbacks. (The decibel scale is logarithmic - 150 dB is 10x as intense as 140 and 160 is 100x as intense as 140)
These levels would also be from 5,000 to 500,000 times more intense than the 125 dB exposure which traumatized a swimmer in the water in 1998.
Need for Congressional Action
The time has come for Congress to step up to its responsibilities to exercise oversight over the United States Navy. Please communicate today to your Senators and Representative. The basis message which you are urged to put into your own words and speak from your own heart is:
The Navy is preparing to deploy a low frequency active sonar system that seriously threatens the marine environment, including endangered whales and other species. The Navy illegally spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this system despite never completing the environmental impact statement. The momentum of these illegal expenditures is causing the Navy to ignore credible evidence that this system is too dangerous to deploy. The time has come for Congress to exercise oversight by asking the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct an audit of the entire SURTASS LFA program and to hold hearings in the appropriate committees into the conduct of the Navy in this manner.
Ask your congressional representatives to either request a GAO audit and communicate with the appropriate committee responsible for this program to urge that committee to request a GAO audit.
Also ask your congressional representative to call for a moratorium on any further testing of this system until the litigation now pending in Honolulu is decided.
If you do send a letter to your congressional delegation and are not in Hawai`i, please send a copy of your letter to:
Senator Daniel K. Inouye
722 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Inouye is a ranking Democrat on the subcommittee on Defense and a member of the subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries. He has been asked to request a GAO audit.
If you are moved to take further action, please communicate your views to:
Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20350-1000
Telephone: (703) 695-3131
Fax: (703) 614-3477
Legal Challenge to Further Testing
On February 29, environmental and cultural organizations joined an elected official in filing a suit challenging the Navy's preparations to deploy this system in 80% of the world's oceans. A release explaining that suit is included below.
This new information radically changes the Navy position in 1998. At that time, various suits were filed challenging the testing. The Navy stopped testing and went to the courts to state that they did not intend to conduct any more tests and that the research was complete. Based on those representations, the courts dismissed the cases as moot.
Given the new plan to conduct further tests, the Hawai`i County Green Party is returning to the judge in the 1998 case and asking that case be reopened and consolidated with the case filed this year, which is before the same judge. The Party will seek an injunction preventing any further testing.
THE SURTASS LFA THREAT
The Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System (SURTASS) Low Frequency Act (LFA) Sonar is an extraordinarily powerful system the Navy seeks to deploy in 80% of the world's oceans. One observation about the potential effects of this system on marine mammals, such as whales, comes from the United States Marine Mammal Commission:
U.S. Marine Mammal Commission - Annual Report for 1997
Page 169 - Low Frequency Active Sonar
PRESS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2000
On Tuesday, February 29, ten national and Hawaiian organizations and an elected official filed suit in a Honolulu federal court to halt the US Navy's preparations to deploy a low frequency active sonar system, known as LFAS.
The suit alleges that the Navy is violating environmental laws by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the sonar system before completing the analysis of the system's environmental effects.
The suit also alleges that the Navy is conducting a biased environmental study designed to justify the expenditures already made, rather than objectively evaluate the potential for harm to whales and other marine life.
The plaintiffs claim that the sonar system poses a threat to marine life, including whales, and to human swimmers and divers.
The suit seeks an injunction to stop the Navy from making any further "irreversible or irretrievable commitments" to deployment of the sonar, until the environmental impact statement is complete and the federal court finds the statement to be adequate.
The suit also seeks an injunction to prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from processing a Navy application for a deployment permit until the Navy is in compliance with environmental laws.
Increased concern about the safety of the low frequency sonar system emerged during testing off the Island of Hawai`i in March 1998. Whale watch captains reported the Humpback Whales to be leaving the testing area. A snorkeler in the water during a broadcast emerged with symptoms a doctor described as similar to a trauma patient in a hospital. Four law suits, which sought to stop the testing, were declared moot by the courts when the Navy ended the testing and left Hawai`i.
The new law suit alleges that the draft environmental impact statement deliberately omitted all of the evidence presented by those filing the suits during the Hawaiian testing.
The plantiffs filing the suit are the Hawai`i County Green Party; Julie Jacobson, a member of the Hawaii County Council; Ocean Mammal Institute; Animal Welfare Institute; Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; Stop LFAS Worldwide Network; Silent Oceans Trust, Inc.; Kohanaiki `Ohana; Universal Cetacean Institute; Orca Quest; and Whale Rescue Team.
For further information about the law suit and the SURTASS LFA threat, visit the LFAS litigation web site.
The opening of this additional front in the legal arena means that financial support to pay the expenses of the litigation is even more needed. To make a tax deductible contribution, you can make out a check to "ISF/Stop LFAS." To contribute funds for unrestricted use, you can make out a check to "Stop LFAS." Send your contribution to: Stop LFAS, P.O. Box 944, Hilo, Hawai`i 96721.
Return to LFAS Litigation Index