ACTION ALERT!

For Immediate Release

January 29, 2007
Contact: Dr. Jonathan Stern
American Cetacean Society
www.acsonline.org

ACTION ALERT!:

Thanks to a ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce on January 23, 2007, the U.S. Navy will be able to test its powerful new SONAR system. This is despite results of several studies that show these sounds are harmful, and in some cases fatal to whales, dolphin and other marine life. How can the Navy conduct operations using a system that violates several federal environmental laws? Basically, the U.S. Navy got around the law by declaring itself above the law.

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England permitted the U.S. Navy a two-year grace period, until January 2009, to test the new High-Power, Mid-Frequency SONAR system. The Navy is not bound to use common sense precautions and could deploy this system in known areas of high marine mammal concentrations.

A lawsuit appealing this decision was filed within hours on behalf of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Cetacean Society International, the Ocean Futures Society and Jean-Michel Cousteau. The American Cetacean Society applauds these efforts.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Navy was originally filed in November 2005 by the NRDC and a collection of other marine life conservation agencies and researchers in an effort to force the Pentagon to comply with various legislation, including the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Who to contact:

The American Cetacean Society asks you to write to your congressman to protest the two-year exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) granted to the US Navy for the purpose of SONAR testing in the waters off Hawaii, southern California and the East Coast.

Copy this text, or Write Your Own

[Date]

Dear Congressman __ / Senator ___:

I am writing to protest the two-year exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) granted to the US Navy for the purpose of SONAR testing in the waters off Hawaii, southern California and the East Coast.

This sort of training has been linked to the death and mass strandings of marine mammals, some of which are also protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Because the U.S. Navy trains in some of the richest underwater habitat on earth, it has a legal and moral obligation to reduce the impact of sonic testing by taking simple, commonsense steps to protect marine life. These steps include adopting a larger safety zone around its ships, reducing the power of sonar at night when marine mammals are harder to see and to avoid training in rich marine mammals habitats.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Address]
[Phone]
[Email]