Protesters threaten
to block whale tests
A flotilla of several boats with 40
By Lori Tighe and Gary T. Kubota
volunteers is ready to launch
today to get in the way
Star-BulletinHawaii environmental groups are preparing to launch a land-and-sea attack to stop the Navy's sonar experiments on endangered whales. On sea, Greenpeace Hawaii and other groups of protesters plan to throw themselves in the ocean around the Navy's ship about 10 miles off the Kona coast to stop the underwater transmissions aimed at the whales. The experiment's low frequency sounds, which the Navy may use for antisubmarine detection, would harm humans and force the Navy to stop transmissions, protesters said.
On land, the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund plans to wage another legal fight tomorrow before U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor to halt the tests, arguing the sounds could harm two endangered whale species: humpback and sperm whales.
A humpback calf found dead at Lahilahi Point last week has pumped up the protesters.
The Navy's lead scientist on the sonar experiments, Christopher Clark, examined the dead calf's ears, leading environmentalists to believe the Navy doubts whether its experiments are harmless to the whales.
"If the Navy was so certain such a thing would never happen, then why did they examine the dead calf? The key to me is such things are possible. If it can happen, it's far too great a risk," said Paul Achitoff, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney representing a coalition of groups trying to stop the Navy. "With this death or any death of an endangered whale, it's too late."
The calf doesn't appear to have been a victim of the Navy's experiments, said Eugene Nitta, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries, who is still waiting for the autopsy results.
"I don't think it's likely," Nitta said. "The calf was observed dead before the Navy began its experiments. And secondly, the sound off the Big Island couldn't have reached Oahu."
Nitta believes the environmentalists are wrongly using the dead whale to bolster their cause. Whales young and old die naturally every year, he said.
The Navy's experiment involves transmitting low frequency sounds up to 215 decibels at various distances to determine the effect on singing humpback whales. The minimum distance is 1,000 meters, which means the whales would receive sound waves at 155 decibels at the most -- a level within the range of sound emitted by the whales, the Navy said.
Michael Bailey, director of Greenpeace Hawaii, said a flotilla of four to five boats and 40 volunteers is ready to launch today.
Protesters jumping into the water close to the ship could suffer physical harm from the sound waves, said Navy Cmdr. Kevin Wensing.
But the Navy would stop the transmissions if anyone came within 1,000 meters of the ship, he said.
Environmentalists fear the sonar experiments would threaten the endangered species' fragile period of reproduction now occuring in Hawaiian waters.
"Under the Endangered Species Act, you have to prove your activity will not harm an endangered species. The Navy hasn't done that," said Marcia Green, founder of Ocean Mammal Institute and Albright College professor of psychobiology in Reading, Penn.
Green initiated the lawsuit to halt the Navy tests.
The court denied Earthjustice's request for a temporary restraining order last week.
The dead whale was first spotted by scuba divers on the ocean floor off Makaha Wednesday. The calf didn't appear to be a stillborn because it had mother's milk in its stomach and air in its lungs, Nitta said.
But the death's timing doesn't jibe with the Navy's experiments, Nitta said.
The Navy began testing its loudspeakers used in its transmissions the day after the calf was found dead, on Thursday.
