By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 11/12/08

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that military training trumps protecting whales in a dispute over the Navy's use of sonar in submarine-hunting exercises off the coast of southern California.

Writing for the majority in the court's first decision of the term, Chief Justice John Roberts said the most serious possible injury to environmental groups would be harm to an unknown number of the marine mammals the groups study.

"In contrast, forcing the Navy to deploy an inadequately trained anti-submarine force jeopardizes the safety of the fleet," the chief justice wrote. He said the overall public interest tips strongly in favor of the Navy.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental organizations had sued the Navy, winning restrictions in lower federal courts on sonar use.

Dolphins, whales and sea lions are among the 37 species of marine mammals in the area.

The Bush administration argued that there is little evidence of harm to marine life in more than 40 years of exercises.

Joining Roberts' opinion were Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The court did not deal with the merits of the claims put forward by the environmental groups. It said, rather, that federal courts abused their discretion by ordering the Navy to limit sonar use in some cases and to turn it off altogether in others.

Justice John Paul Stevens did not join the majority opinion, but said the lower courts had failed to adequately explain the basis for siding with the environmental groups. Justice Stephen Breyer would have allowed some restrictions to remain.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented, saying the prospect of harm to the whales was sufficient to justify limits on sonar use.

In complicated sonar exercises, ships, subs and aircraft must train together in order to track modern diesel-electric submarines which can operate almost silently.

The Navy says the area off southern California is the only location on the West Coast that is relatively close to land, air and sea bases as well as amphibious landing areas.

NRDC said the ruling is a narrow one.

Joel Reynolds, director of NRDC's marine mammal protection program, said the court "did not accept the Navy's expansive claims of executive power," nor did the court "overturn the underlying determination that the Navy likely violated the law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement."

The Navy challenged restrictions that included shutting down sonar when a marine mammal is spotted within 2,200 yards of a vessel.

The case is Winter v. NRDC, 07-1239.

This has long been a no-brainer. Just goes to show that the courts in California are so out of step with reality it ain't even funny.

I posted this article on my facebook page, and the next thing I know, one of my high school classmates and one of my fellow naval officers are getting into a debate on my board. I couldn't help but laugh.

I don't know if anyone knows the reason for the start of the closure of Long Beach Naval Base was caused not being able to run detection Sonar in Long Beach Harbor and the USS Nautilus went in the harbor and sunk every Ship there so this problem started a long time ago.That was a long time ago.Long Beach was maybe the best duty on the West Coast until the State of CA.and all of the City Fathers screwed it up.

(Edited paragraph)So originally I said I didn't have any statistics of whale beachings, until I came across an article from Rear Admiral Lawrence Rice. Statistically, the number of marine-mammal "strandings" -- beached whales, for example -- due to sonar is extremely low compared to those caused by nature and the commercial fishing industry. Sonar was implicated in 50 strandings over 10 years, Rice said. This averages out at a rate of five sonar-related strandings per year, vs. an average of 3,600 standings per year due to natural causes and about 600,000 per year linked to the commercial fishing industry, he explained.

I'm pretty sure that every whale that beaches itself will always be claimed as a sonar death. How does that account for beached whales that end up in other parts of the world? Maybe they were just suicidal or something.

I think it's funny that a small animal can run into the middle of the street and get run over and be considered road kill. But if a whale decides to swim in front of a seagoing vessel, it's a fine for the Captain. I see dolphins swimming with our ships all the time, especially in between the larger ones when they do UNREPS. But if one of them gets too close to the prop and turns themselves into Bumblebee Tuna, it can't be the Captain's fault.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bjd392,

Bjd the California Whale has always used the Coast for calving grounds and protection from the Killer Whales the US Navy has for many years gone out of their way to protect the Marine Life in our waters but the more they give the more the State of CA. wants.