Court Holds Navy to Rules Safeguarding Marine Mammals

[babylonsister]

:applause::applause:


Court Holds Navy to Rules Safeguarding Marine Mammals
By Kenneth R. Weiss
The Los Angeles Times

Sunday 02 March 2008


Appellate panel backs a lower court decision but allows a 30-day reprieve from the toughest rules so sonar training can go forward.

A federal appeals court has rejected the Bush administration effort to exempt Navy sonar training from key environmental laws, backing up a lower court that imposed extensive safeguards to protect whales and dolphins from harmful sonic blasts.

Even so, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the Navy a 30-day reprieve from the most far-reaching protections - such as shutting down sonar when whales are spotted within 2,200 yards - so it could conduct a pair of training missions this month off Southern California and to give it time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The Navy is carefully considering additional review, including possible review by the Supreme Court," Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore said Saturday. Once the monthlong reprieve ends, the Navy spokeswoman said, the ruling "leaves in place significant restrictions on our ability to train realistically."

The decision, released late Friday night, is the latest in a string of legal defeats for the Navy in Los Angeles and Hawaii as it tries to avoid court-ordered restraints on how it trains sailors to hunt for submarines with a type of sonar that has been linked to the death of whales and dolphins.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030208D.shtml

[frebrd]

1. K&R! Good news, but it sounds like

the court left them room to get around it! Hope I'm wromg.