{"id":101,"date":"2014-01-31T21:39:27","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T21:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/EH\/?p=101"},"modified":"2014-01-31T21:39:27","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T21:39:27","slug":"new-imoto-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=101","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: A Lawsuit Over Navy Sonar; Imoto Retires"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sounding Off:<\/b>\u00a0On December 13, the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized \u201cthe most environmentally destructive of the alternatives the Navy analyzed for training and testing in the HSTT [Hawai`i-Southern California Training and Testing] Study Area during the period December 26, 2013, to December 25, 2018,\u201d states a complaint filed December 16 by the Conservation Council for Hawai`i, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Ocean Mammal Institute.<\/div>\n
\nThat decision, they argue, was \u201carbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Navy has proposed to broadcast 510,000 hours of low-, medium-, and high-frequency sonar over the next five years in the study area, which spans nearly 3 million square miles. NMFS is also allowing the Navy to set off 260,000 explosives in the area.<\/p>\n

The Navy\u2019s environmental impact statement for the training found that 155 marine mammals would be killed (including individuals of five species of endangered whales) and more than 2,000 would be permanently injured by the proposed exercises. What\u2019s more, marine mammals would experience disruptions to behaviors such as sheltering, feeding, breeding, migration, and nursing some 9.6 million times, the complaint states.<\/p>\n

The final EIS found that under the Navy\u2019s preferred action, nearly 2 million marine mammals would be killed, injured or otherwise harmed each year. (It should be noted that the Navy\u2019s \u201cNo Action\u201d alternative still would have allowed some level of training.)<\/p>\n

The complaint notes that in comments on the draft EIS and on NMFS\u2019s proposed rule, testifiers used National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cetacean density and distribution maps to identify more than a dozen biologically important areas and recommended restricting activities in some of them. They also criticized the lack of evaluation of a true \u201cNo Action\u201d alternative.<\/p>\n

NMFS simply disregarded those comments, the complaint argues.<\/p>\n

The groups asked the court to vacate NMFS\u2019s authorization of the Navy\u2019s training and testing activities, issue \u201cany appropriate injunctive relief,\u201d and award litigation costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe science is clear: sonar and live-fire training in the ocean harms marine mammals,\u201d Ocean Mammal Institute\u2019s president Marsha Green said in a press release. \u201cThere are safer ways to conduct Navy exercises that include time and place restrictions to avoid areas known to be vital for marine mammals\u2019 feeding, breeding and resting. With a little advanced planning and precaution, the Navy can conduct training and protect marine species in the Pacific Ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imoto Retires:<\/b>\u00a0Roger Imoto, acting administrator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Division of Forestry and Wildlife has retired and been replaced with former O`ahu branch manager David Smith. The division has been without a permanent administrator for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Correction:<\/b>\u00a0Last month\u2019s Board Talk item on the wind farm proposed by Na Pua Makani Power Partners, LLC, incorrectly affiliated the wind project with West Wind Works, LLC (3W). Although 3W was part owner as recently as 2012, Na Pua Makani Power Partners, LLC currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Champlin Hawai`i Wind Holdings, LLC.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sounding Off: On December 13, the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized “the most environmentally destructive of the alternatives the Navy analyzed for training and testing in the HSTT [Hawai`i-Southern California Training and Testing] Study Area during the period December 26, 2013, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,9,17,18],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dlnr","category-january-2014","category-marine","category-new-noteworthy","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}