Navy: Rulings hurt sonar training, readiness

[unhappycamper]

Navy: Rulings hurt sonar training, readiness
By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 11, 2008 5:57:28 EDT

ABOARD THE USS HOWARD — When sailors spotted a submarine on their sonar screens during exercises in March, Cmdr. Curtis Goodnight sent a helicopter to drop a sonar buoy to track it.

It’s a routine tactic for a destroyer commander. But several whales were in the area where the crew needed to drop the buoy. And under a recent federal appeals court ruling designed to protect marine mammals during Navy training, the sailors were prohibited from using active sonar within 2,000 yards, or over a mile, of the whales.

The commander of the destroyer Howard faced a dilemma: should the ship linger, hoping the whales would clear and allow him to resume hunting the sub? Or should he turn around so the sub wouldn’t be able to detect and torpedo the Howard and its 300 sailors?

“These become commanders’ decisions that you probably wouldn’t make if someone is really trying to shoot at you,” Goodnight told reporters as another round of exercises started off Hawaii recently. He let the submarine escape.

To environmentalists, the episode shows the Navy can abide by the law and protect marine mammals. To the Navy, it shows how the court’s interpretation of the law impairs sonar training and, over time, may harm military readiness and national security.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_navy_sonar_061008/