Ear Splitters

A federal judge has temporarily forbidden the Navy from using high-intensity sonar in war-game exercises off the coast of Hawaii, ruling that environmental groups had provided "considerable convincing scientific evidence that the Navy's use of ... sonar can kill, injure, and disturb many species, including marine mammals." The Defense Department last week granted the Navy a six-month national-security exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, despite anecdotal evidence collected over the years that whales, including wee pups, have beached themselves in areas close to Navy sonar use and testing. But the judge in Honolulu ruled that the exemption did not cover the National Environmental Policy Act, as maintained in a Natural Resources Defense Council lawsuit against the Navy.

Here's an oldie but goodie about local efforts to thwart Navy sonar.