Court Bars U.S. Navy From Using Sonar Within 12 Miles Of Californian Coast

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - A U.S. District Court on Thursday imposed limitations on the Navy's use of mid-frequency (MFA) sonar during training exercises off the coast of southern California. The court imposed a 12 nautical mile "no-sonar exclusion zone" along the California coastline.

It expanded the safety zone and ordered Navy vessels to shut down of MFA sonar when marine mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards (approximately 2,000 meters) away.

The court also required pre-exercise monitoring for 60 minutes, each day in which MFA sonar is to be used; passive and dedicated aerial monitoring before and during exercises; and helicopter monitoring for marine mammals for 10 minutes before deployment of active dipping sonar.

"We have said from the beginning of this litigation that the Navy can meet its training objectives while substantially increasing protections against unnecessary harm to whales and other marine mammals," said Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) which filed the lawsuit.

According to the NRDC, the high-intensity MFA sonar system can blast vast areas of the oceans with dangerous levels of underwater noise and has killed marine mammals in numerous incidents around the world.