US navy to limit use of contentious sonar system

New Delhi , October 15, 2003 : Environmental groups have applauded the US Navy's decision to accept a permanent injunction against peacetime use of the new sonar system designed to detect enemy submarines from great distances in oceans. The sonar system is said to harm marine mammals and fish, especially whales, as it emits very loud, low-frequency sound that travels for hundreds of miles.

Last year, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental groups sued the Navy over the new system, seeking to restrict its use. Environmentalists pointed to a different system the Navy used in 2000, when at least 16 whales and two dolphins beached themselves on islands in the Bahamas . Eight whales that died were found to be hemorrhaged around their brains and ear bones, possibly due to loud noise.

A U .S. magistrate has issued a preliminary injunction restricting use of the system and, in a separate ruling, ordered the environmentalists and the Navy to negotiate a final settlement. Since the injunction, the Navy has used the sonar system in restricted areas (only off the eastern seaboard of Asia , an area of about 1.5 million square miles) without harm to marine life, according to sources in the US Navy. The Navy also agreed to seasonal restrictions designed to protect whale migrations and to avoid using the system near the coast. These restrictions, however, do not apply during war.

A US Navy official reported that they spent $ 10 million on an environmental impact assessment and therefore low-frequency sonar does not harm marine wildlife. Yet, whale strandings in the recent years have proved otherwise. Animals are known to be very sensitive to sound, which they use to communicate and determine their location. Recently, English and Spanish researchers reported in the journal Nature that they had found gas bubbles in the tissues of some beached whales, indicating they may have risen too quickly to escape sonar noise and developed decompression sickness. These whales were found soon after an active, mid-frequency sonar had been used as part of a Spanish-led naval exercise.

As part of the campaign, a bill was also introduced in the European Parliament to limit NATO's use of the technology. "Oceans are an acoustic environment, and the species that live there have an acute acoustic sense. If we interfere with these critical behaviors, we may be affecting not just individual animals, but entire populations." said Frederick O'Regan, president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) .

The environmental groups announced that they would start an international campaign to regulate of all types of active sonar that send out blasts of sound that bounce off underwater objects whose location can then be identified. IFAW , which is based in Europe and says it has 2 million members worldwide, said it will actively lobby European governments and the European Union to limit the deployment of the high-powered sonar. The organization works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress.

Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Defense Council, IFAW and other environmental groups announced a new global campaign Monday to stop the spread of high-intensity sonar systems in oceans. Such systems are used by the defense forces of Canada , Britain , France , Germany , Italy and other nations.