KEKAHA — Bill Walker carried an American flag outside the Pacific Missile Range Facility’s Independence Day celebration last night, but the ‘Ele‘ele resident said he didn’t come out for the fireworks. Instead, the former Coast Guard sonar technician joined about
KEKAHA — Bill Walker carried an American flag outside the Pacific Missile Range Facility’s Independence Day celebration last night, but the ‘Ele‘ele resident said he didn’t come out for the fireworks.
Instead, the former Coast Guard sonar technician joined about 30 others along Kaumuali‘i Highway to protest the use of sonar in the biannual RIMPAC exercises taking place off Hawaiian shores this month.
“We are out here to do our American thing,” Walker said. “I was a sonar man when I was in the Coast Guard. It’s necessary for our national defense. But why don’t they take the operations to a remote area?”
Conservation groups asked the U.S. District Court in California to consider that same question last week, and yesterday a judge issued a temporary restraining order to halt the use of mid-frequency active sonar during RIMPAC exercises. The order is in effect until July 18.
The order also called for the Navy to sit down with the groups and come to an agreement about safe use of sonar.
The court found that the military had violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which calls for federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements and to research alternatives to activities that could harm the environment.
That would include an alternative to the waters off the coast of Hawai‘i, where the Navy estimated that the exercises would involve 33,331 harassment exposures to more than 20 species of marine mammals, according to court documents.
“This ruling underscores that no one, not even the United States military, is above the law,” said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney at National Resources Defense Council and director of its Marine Mammal Protection Project.
Jon Yoshishige, spokesman for the Pacific Fleet, said the Navy is still discussing its next steps. Sonar use in the training exercises would have started Thursday, according to court documents.
Some scientists, including scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say that the use of sonar may be linked to mass strandings like the 2004 incident that saw more than 150 whales crowd Hanalei Bay during RIMPAC exercises.
NOAA scientists granted a permit for sonar use during RIMPAC for the first time this year, setting safety measures to limit the interaction between marine mammals and military vessels.
The NRDC said that those measures didn’t go far enough. Together with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Cetacean Society International, the Ocean Futures Society and Jean-Michel Cousteau, the group filed suit last week.
Friday the Department of Defense issued a statement exempting military training activities like RIMPAC from compliance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act for six months.
Sonar technology bounces sound waves off of underwater objects, allowing the Navy to create a map of what lies below the water’s surface and detect objects such as submarines.
The Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation USA organized the protest last night. The protest featured a giant, inflatable whale and its calf.
“We just want people to think about it,” said Gordon Labedz, a Kekaha resident who has worked to bring the Surfrider Foundation to Kaua‘i. “People who don’t read the paper, who don’t watch the news. We don’t want to bum anyone’s fireworks.”
• Charlotte Woolard, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or cwoolard@kauaipubco.com.
