alert! - oceans

ON 9-5-02, THE HOUSE PASSED AN EXEMPTION FROM THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AND THE MIGRATORY BIRD ACT FOR THE MILITARY.
The Senate will vote in the next few weeks on letting the Navy violate the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Navy has been testing a new, superloud sonar that kills dolphins and whales. This active sonar produces 230 decibel sounds-louder than standing by a Challenger rocket launch. It causes dolphins and whales to bleed from the ears.
Ask your senators (202-221-3121) to oppose amendments to the Defense Appropriations Act that would exempt the military from the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Act, and other environmental laws.
For more info, go to www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp The military is also asking for blanket exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Superfund toxic clean up laws, the Wilderness Act, and the Migratory Bird Protection Act. There already are exemptions from laws to be used in case of national security needs, but the military wants general waivers from laws so they do not have to justify their actions. The outrageous pollution around nuclear weapons factories demonstrates that we should not allow secret waivers of environmental laws; we need to hold the military responsible for protecting our health and that of the environment and wildlife.


	Oceans

URGENT - SAVE WHALES & DOLPHINS ON 9-5-02, THE HOUSE PASSED AN EXEMPTION FROM THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AND THE MIGRATORY BIRD ACT FOR THE MILITARY. The Senate will vote in the next few weeks on letting the Navy violate the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Navy has been testing a new, superloud sonar that kills dolphins and whales. This active sonar produces 230 decibel sounds-louder than standing by a Challenger rocket launch. It causes dolphins and whales to bleed from the ears. Ask your senators (202-221-3121) to oppose amendments to the Defense Appropriations Act that would exempt the military from the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Act, and other environmental laws. For more info, go to www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp The military is also asking for blanket exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Superfund toxic clean up laws, the Wilderness Act, and the Migratory Bird Protection Act. There already are exemptions from laws to be used in case of national security needs, but the military wants general waivers from laws so they do not have to justify their actions. The outrageous pollution around nuclear weapons factories demonstrates that we should not allow secret waivers of environmental laws; we need to hold the military responsible for protecting our health and that of the environment and wildlife.

From: Defenders of Wildlife To: DEN Activists Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 9:32 AM The mystery of the mass stranding of 16 whales in the Bahamas has been solved - it was caused by the U.S. Navy blasting intense sounds underwater in tests of its sonar system. That's according to a new government report by civilian and military scientists. Six of the 16 beached whales died, and X-rays showed bleeding around their inner ears, along with trauma to their auditory systems and brains. At the time of the deaths in March 2000, the Navy was generating underwater noises of about 230 decibels in an exercise meant to improve coordination of ships. That's 100,000 times louder than the noise that's known to cause tissue damage in sea animals. Defenders of Wildlife has sued the Navy to stop sonar tests. Click here to learn more: http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/new/marine/whales/sonar.html

PROTECTION WRONG FOR RIGHT WHALE: The Humane Society of U.S. is taking federal agencies, primarily the National Marine Fisheries Service to court "failing to protect endangered right whales in U.S. waters" says ENS 10/10. The lawsuit seeks "immediate and substantive moves" to protect what is considered the "the most endangered large whale species in the world." 10-17-2000 greenlines

BRIT SONAR COULD KILL WHALES The discovery of "several dead whales" off Scotland's Western Isles has the British Ministry of Defense investigating whether "naval submarine-hunting sonar equipment is killing whales" says UPI 8/27. Scientists say the sonar "appears to drive them away from their breeding and feeding grounds and onto beaches" and "could also kill them at short distances."

CORAL REEFS IN PERIL Reefs and the life in the ocean may help provide the air we breathe, the rains, provide us water for drink and for growing food and the climate driving and stabilizing cycles. Reefs are complex: damsel fish defend corals and algae yards from other fish that would break down the coral. The mess causing reef destruction includes pollution, coastal development, agricultural run off, overfishing, overpopulation, higher sea water temperatures (causing bleaching) global warming and el ninos. Mining of coral, overfishing, collecting too many shellfish, leaks from boats and jetskis, breakage caused by anchors and boats, human sewage, untreated sewage and global warming, sedimentation,m the ozone hole, ultra-violet light, nutrient loading from fertilizer run-off destroy reefs. UV light kills fish larvae, phytoplankton and stresses the reefs into bleaching.Without reefs fish and shellfish disappear. The trade in aquarium fish destroys reefs as fish are killed by sodium cyanide and dynamite. The fish on the edge of the zone of death are stunned and then collected. Blasting breaks the reef into rubble. "Shoals of Time", Harper's, January 2001