Whale watching wows

Dogs and cats likely don’t have the complexity of emotions, let alone the self-awareness, that humans, other primates and elephants do, but it’s clearer by the day that whales not only do, they may even top our non-human cousins in their psychological complexity.

Supremes heart Navy, hate whales

In a 5-4 split yesterday, the Supreme Court overruled lower-level courts and lifted restrictions on Navy long-range sonar use. The sonar has been shown to cause a number of problems for whaes.

Chief John Roberts said the appellate court ruling didn’t cite any of such problems and otherwise, that the court, and the original district court, abused their discretion. It also appears Roberts and the other four on his side took at face value the Navy’s claim to use such sonar as much as it does. (The original ruling was just to restrict, not ban, such sonar.)

Roberts also ignored the fact that the lower courts pointed out the Navy never bothered to conduct an environmental impact statement. That’s why timber groups were among the folks filing amicus briefs on behalf of the Navy.

Farm salmon killing orcas

That’s the claim of Alexandra Hubbard. Now, many researchers have been developing more and more evidence that large salmon farms pass sea lice on to wild salmon, but Hubbard is taking the idea a step further. A whale researcher in British Columbia, she claims salmon farms are doing the same to her killer whale research subjects.

Whale vulnerability to sonar reinforced

As the Supreme Court debates whether protect whales from long-range sonar or give the Navy carte blanche, the World Conservation Congress weighs in, weighs in, saying even the sound of a yacht motor can damage a whale’s inner ear.

As far as sonar, it’s the oil industry, not just navies, that are of concern. And, global warming will exacerbate how far sound travels in water.

Read the full story, for more.

SCOTUS to screw over whales

Judging by today's early questioning by Supreme Court justices in the case pitting the life and health of whales against the Navy's use of long-range mid-frquency sonar, it could be hard slogging for whales to hold on to the protections they won at the district and appellate court levels:

"You're asking us (for a decision), who know little about whales and less about the Navy," Justice Stephen Breyer told Los Angeles-based attorney Richard Kendall, who is representing environmental groups.

The question is, as the story notes, how much leeway to grant the Navy as to when and how easily it can sidestep environmental decisions.

The Navy's sonar produces underwater sounds that Kendall said are 2,000 times louder than a jet engine. Some scientists this can cause hearing loss, cranial bleeding, behavioral modifications and mass strandings in whales.

As the story notes, a district court required additional safety measures from the Navy, including stopping sonar use when whales or dolphins were spotted within 2,200 yards and shutting down the sonar under certain other conditions.

But BushCo's Council on Environmental Quality (NOT the Navy, if you'll note) declared the existence of "emergency conditions."

The key is whether or not SCOTUS is ready to swallow that line from the executive again.

BIG win for whales

Navy agrees in federal court, in a settlement, to restrict its use of low-frequency sonar.

Environmental news roundup — whale protection, Gore on warming, Southeastern states disagree on water

Appeals court upholds restrictions on Navy sonar

A three-judge appellate panelhas upheld a federal district court ruling that the Navy must take whale-protection precautions with its use of long-range sonar.

Per the ruling, the Navy must maintain a 12 nautical mile no-sonar buffer zone along the California coast, shut down sonar when marine mammals are seen within 2,200 yards, avoid whale habitats and undertake similar other precautions. The Navy has 30 days to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Gore: Global warming getting short shrift in presidential campaign

So, the Nobelist former vice president will turn up the heat himself. His Alliance for Climate Protection will launch a national campaign pressuring candidates to describe in more detail how they will fight global warming.

Southeastern states can’t agree on divvying up diminishing water pot

Even intensifying drought can’t make good neighbors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. White House-brokered negotiations between the three over water sharing in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins, which have been the occasion of 20 years of wrangling, means the Army Corps of Engineers will impose its own plan.

Georgia, upstream, wants to hold more water in reservoirs around Atlanta while Florida and Alabama argue the Peach State didn’t plan for growth well enough. Meanwhile, legal action between the three will stay on the front burner, and perhaps even have new elements added to it.

Critical-level drought in the area has exacerbated the ongoing water fight. Gore’s comments seem prescient.

And, I can’t wait for something similar to play out in the Colorado River basin between California (Los Angeles), Arizona (Phoenix) and Nevada (Las Vegas).

Judge limits Navy sonar use off California

After a previous total ban was rejected at the appellate level, U.S. Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, in a rehearing, put limits on Navy sonar use to protect whales. The Navy has said it will review the decision.

Let’s hope their review accepts the judge’s ruling, or negotiates something close to it, with environmental groups. If the Navy really needs more unfettered use, it can get it elsewhere.

Navy still telling whales to go to hell

The Navy says it will invoke state secrets privilege in an environmental lawsuit about how its long-range sonar is damaging whales’ communication, hearing, and perhaps even lives.

If upheld, this would remove certain data that the Natural Resources Defense Council wants from ever being presented in court and would, in essence, gut the lawsuit.

Outside military experts at places like Jane’s Defence Review can probably figure out enough about the long-distance sonar that it’s not really a secret. This is just obstructionism.

Pentagon still telling whales to go to hell

The Navy says it will invoke state secrets privilege in an environmental lawsuit about how its long-range sonar is damaging whales’ communication, hearing, and perhaps even lives.

If upheld, this would remove certain data that the Natural Resources Defense Council wants from ever being presented in court and would, in essence, gut the lawsuit.

Outside military experts at places like Jane’s Defence Review can probably figure out enough about the long-distance sonar that it’s not really a secret. This is just obstructionism.