Challenges to the Navy about use of sonar-training sessions in Pacific waters have resulted in a satisfactory compromise. Lawsuits filed by several environmental groups can be credited for achieving some protection of marine mammals, and the settlement should create a pause if not an end to further litigation.

Little more than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that national security trumps environmental laws aimed at protection of marine mammals off California, the Navy and environmental groups reached a deal on sonar use throughout the world. A similar lawsuit against the Navy's use of sonar in Hawaiian waters was pending in federal court.

The settlement calls for the Navy to spend $14.75 million in marine mammal research that it already had earmarked for the next three years and $1.1 million in attorneys' fees for time spent on the Hawaii case. It also creates a schedule for the Navy to implement certain measures and subjects the training process and scientific research to civilian review.

Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council pointed out that while the settlement does not eliminate the possibility of future lawsuits, it does provide for a process for negotiation with the Navy when disagreements arise.

A federal judge blocked the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar during international war games in Hawaiian waters in 2006 after a federal study found sonar to be “;a plausible, if not likely,”; cause of the stranding of more than 150 melon-headed whales off Kauai in the 2004 Rim of the Pacific exercises.

The settlement requires the Navy to scan training waters for marine mammals, look for whales through passive sonar, lookouts and aircraft, and reduce or shut down sonar-training exercises when whales or dolphins are spotted nearby. That alone is an improvement over previous conduct.