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Navy, NMFS slammed by judge over training permits
April 9, 2015The Navy and NMFS suffered a stunning legal defeat over the latest 5-year EIS and permits governing training exercises in Hawaii, California, and waters in between. In marked contrast to other recent court rulings, which found fault with some procedural issues but largely backed the Navy and NMFS’s collaborative planning results (see detailed AEI summaries […]
New NMFS Navy “take” permits: outrageous or reasonable?
February 11, 2013The release of Proposed Rules to govern US Navy training and testing operations in the waters of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Southern California, and Hawaii from 2014-2019 has put the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the crosshairs of an outraged response from environmental groups. NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity, and others point […]
NRDC, allies mount new legal challenge to Navy sonar
October 20, 20122012 is shaping up as the year when the legal battle over the US Navy’s active sonar systems ramped back up to full-scale confrontation. A 2009 agreement between NRDC and the Navy put legal challenges on the back burner – actually, entirely off the stovetop – in favor of dialogue. But recent permits issued by NOAA’s National […]
Navy receives NMFS OK for LFAS operations 2012-2017
September 10, 2012In August, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued its Record of Decision that will allow the Navy to operate its Low Frequency Active Sonar systems for the next five years. NMFS will issue a new Letter of Authorization each year, in order to accommodate new information as needed, but the overall parameters of the permits will […]
NRDC re-opens legal battle with Navy, NOAA over sonar
January 27, 2012Three years after the NRDC and U.S. Navy reached an agreement that was meant to create avenues for dialogue and collaboration, a new lawsuit filed this week suggests that the hopes both sides held have not been realized. The main sticking point remains the same now as it was then: environmental advocates insist that some […]
NRDC, allies take Navy to court over training range near right whale habitat
January 29, 2010The new Navy Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR), being planned for off the coast of northern Florida, has hit a roadblock that’s been fairly visible since the location was announced last July: environmental groups are challenging the permitting process that allows construction to commence before the Navy completes its environmental assessment of future operations there. […]
NMFS Gives Sonar OK for Atlantic Coast
January 27, 2009NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has formally given the Navy its seal of approval for the third of the Navy’s “Big 3” sonar training EISs, just in the nick of time as the Navy’s 2-year national security exemption expires. The Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training (AFAST) EIS, along with the recently approved EISs covering Hawaii […]
New court ruling on Navy sonar has big implications
July 20, 2016A new court ruling could fundamentally change the standards that the Navy and National Marine Fisheries Service have been using to regulate Navy sonar, by requiring more areas to be set aside as off-limits to the Navy’s routine peacetime operations. A federal appeals court has ruled that simply determining that Navy activities will have “negligible impact” […]
Top researchers urge US to hold off on Atlantic seismic surveys
April 26, 2016In a second letter to the Obama administration, 28 top ocean noise and whale researchers have raised serious concerns about planned seismic surveys along the east coast of the U.S. The scientists cite several recent studies that shed light ways that the long term health and reproductive rates of right whales have been affected by temporary stresses, […]
Navy agrees to exclusion zones for sonar, explosives training
September 17, 2015After being slammed by a federal judge in March, the US Navy has agreed to keep sonar training and explosives testing and training out of several biologically important areas off the California and Hawaii coasts. This week, settlement talks with NRDC, Earthjustice, and other plaintiffs resulted in a final order, which will remain in effect […]
Navy (mostly) prevails in LFA lawsuit
June 9, 2014Eighteen months after a lawsuit challenged the latest 5-year authorization for the US Navy’s SURTASS-LFA low-frequency active sonar system, Federal Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled in the Navy’s favor on nearly all counts. And last week, the Navy agreed to do a Supplemental Environmental Impact statement that will address the key point on which she found […]
Legal challenges mount to new round of Navy training permits
January 31, 2014In December, the Navy’s current five-year plan for training and testing activities around Hawaii and off the southern California coast were approved by NOAA regulators, covering the years 2014-2018. The approval authorized incidental takes of marine mammals, including both widespread behavioral changes and close-range injuries and some deaths, as a result of sound exposure from sonar […]
First ruling in new sonar challenges fails to limit huge take numbers
October 9, 2013The first ruling is in from the latest round of legal challenges to Naval training permits, and it’s a split decision. You’ll need to click through to read the full post to get all the details, but here’s a preview of the conclusion you’ll find at the end: It appears that the places that the […]
California regulators reject Navy training plans despite federal approvals
March 12, 2013The California Coastal Commission has rejected the Navy’s 5-year plan for training and testing activities that recently received provisional approvals from the National Marine Fisheries Service. In a unanimous vote, CCC members said the Navy’s environmental studies failed to back up its claim that impacts on marine life would be negligible during the years 2014-2019. […]
Tension builds over expanded whale “takes” in new Navy sonar EIS
May 18, 2012The US Navy has released its initial Draft Environmental Impact Statements for the next 5-year round of permits it will seek from the National Marine Fisheries Service for its at-sea training activities, and the numbers of animals expected to be affected have skyrocketed. This is in part thanks to the new EISs combining areas that were […]
Feds to assess Gulf seismic surveys for MMPA compliance
June 20, 2011Ongoing pressure from environmental groups has spurred the National Marine Fisheries Service to take a closer look at the effects of seismic surveys on whales in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration has announced that NMFS will prepare a Letter of Authorization, which will look more closely at the question of whether current seismic survey […]
NOAA steps up, announces new active sonar oversight with possible off-limits areas
January 22, 2010NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco has announced a series of sweeping new initiatives designed to push the Navy forward in its efforts to understand and mitigate the impacts of mid-frequency active sonar on marine mammals. In response to a request from the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ), which asked NOAA to conduct a comprehensive review of […]
Navy Outlines Recent, Ongoing Behavioral Response Studies
August 12, 2009A detailed article-cum-press release from Navy News provides the most information currently available on three studies that will be central to addressing ongoing questions about the Navy’s assessment of the behavioral responses of whales and dolphins to Navy mid-frequency active sonar. Two of the studies took place on US Navy instrumented ranges during normal Naval […]
2004 Hanalei Bay Incident Not Related to Lunar Cycle; Sonar Link Remains
August 8, 2009During the 2004 RIMPAC multinational navy exercises in Hawaii, a pod of over 150 melon-headed whales appeared in a shallow bay, far from their normal offshore habitat. Their agitation was obvious, and one young whale beached and died. When it became apparent that sonar training was taking place offshore that day, the Navy initially said […]
AEI Annual Ocean Noise Recap for 2008 Now Available
February 18, 2009This year, the annual Acoustic Ecology Institute Spotlight Report on recent developments in ocean noise is too large for easy viewing on a web page. So, we’ve created a pdf version that you can download (or view in your browser if you’re a glutton for punishment). [AEI: Ocean Noise 2008 (pdf, 4MB)] Here’s what you’ll […]