Navy Sonar Tests to Go on With Steps to Protect Whales

June 27, 2008 -- The Navy has adopted a new plan for training in Hawaii waters that it says will allow it to accelerate some exercises and hold them more frequently while continuing to limit the effects of its sonar on marine mammals.

The Navy created the training plan after completing environmental studies to ensure the plan complies with federal law. It is conducting similar studies for training ranges off California, the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.

Environmentalists say active sonar can hurt or kill whales and other marine mammals. The Navy says it takes steps to protect marine mammals from its sonar.

The plan adopted Thursday leaves in place key elements of Navy training.

The Navy will continue to hold a series of undersea warfare exercises that train sailors to use sonar, or bounced sound waves, to find submarines. Rim of the Pacific international maritime drills, which the Navy hosts off Hawaii every two years, will also be allowed to continue.

B.J. Penn, Navy assistant secretary for installations and environment, said the plan allows the Navy to provide sailors with the skills they need to be effective in combat.

"The Navy must train its deploying forces in the most realistic manner possible," he said in a statement.

Sailors will be expected to use two varieties of active sonar, mid-frequency and high-frequency, for the same number of hours as they currently do.

The Navy said it would shield marine mammal from harm by adhering to a list of 29 protection measures it adopted last year. Those include posting specially trained lookouts on ships and shutting down active sonar when a marine mammal comes within 200 yards of the sonar source.