Navy steams ahead with sonar tests despite state opposition, orca impacts
By John Ryan
Over the objections of Washington state officials and orca advocates, the U.S. Navy is steaming ahead with a plan for seven more years of testing sonar and explosives in waters off the Northwest coast.
The Navy says the piercing noise from its tests and training activities could harm eight species of whales listed under the Endangered Species Act.
But Navy officials, backed up by the National Marine Fisheries Service, say the occasional, temporary disturbances won’t threaten the orcas’ or any other species’ survival.
“At this time the Navy intends to proceed over the objection of the state of Washington,” the Navy’s Record of Decision document, published Friday, states.
“We’re disappointed that the Navy has chosen not to adopt the measures recommended by our state to ensure that its activities do not affect the southern resident killer whales,” Washington Department of Ecology spokesperson Andrew Wineke said in an email.
Among other changes, the heads of five Washington state agencies had called on the Navy in 2020 to shut down sonar operations when any orcas, endangered or not, were within 1,000 yards—5 to 10 times farther than the Navy proposal.
The Navy has a history of ignoring objections from the locals for any of their operational plans for the area, no matter how detrimental their plans are to the local residents (both Human and Animal). My neighborhood has a big problem with jet noise from their F-18 “Howlers”. So of course it would be too inconvenient to see is any whales were nearby when using their high intensity sonar.
Proposed U.S. navy weapons testing in Salish Sea alarms residents: Elizabeth May
By Carl Meyer
Residents around the Salish Sea in B.C. are very concerned with a proposed U.S. military testing program that could harm critically endangered whales in the region, says Elizabeth May.
The navy’s activities, set to be authorized Nov. 12 by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through 2027, “would likely adversely affect” the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), a critically endangered species with a population of just 72, according to a summary of NOAA’s own scientific analysis.
The use of sonar and detonations in the water could expose the orcas to things such as temporary hearing loss or the blocking of their feeding, breeding or migration patterns. Other whales, such as the blue, the fin and the humpback, as well as the Guadalupe fur seal, the leatherback sea turtle and dozens of species of fish, could also be significantly harmed.
“Canada must take a strong position on this issue,” May wrote to Trudeau in an Oct. 2 letter. “The program is estimated to cause harm to an additional 1.7 million marine animals.”
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee has taken a critical position on the issue. In July, the governor wrote the U.S. government asking for “significant revisions” to the rules that would authorize the navy to incidentally harm or harass wildlife. The state considers the rules as they stand to be “unacceptable,” he wrote.
U.S. navy gets OK for increased disturbance of orcas
By Roxanne Egan-Elliott
Environmental groups are worried that the U.S. Navy’s activity in southern resident killer whale habitat spells trouble for the endangered animals.
The renewed authorization gives the navy permission to conduct activities that could result in 51 incidents that disturb a southern resident killer whale’s behaviour each year, up from two per year previously. The authorization expires in November 2027.
Scientists and environmental groups are worried about the impact on the 74 endangered southern resident killer whales, which live along the West Coast from the B.C.-Washington border to California.
Deborah Giles, a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology, previously told the Times Colonist the navy’s activities have the potential to disrupt the whales’ foraging, breeding, socializing and resting habits.
“When you’re talking about a population that is desperate for food and nourishment, any sort of disruption in foraging is something to take seriously,” Giles said, adding the whales could be forced to travel out of their habitats for food, which is already scarce.
Giles works for the non-profit Wild Orca, one of 29 organizations that signed a letter in the summer expressing concern that the navy’s proposal would amount to “high levels of harassment” of southern resident killers whales.
The Navy doesn’t care, because they don ‘t have to. The Navy is used to acting like an 800 pound gorilla, with little regard for the locals.