Supreme Court "split" on Navy sonar and whales

The Supreme Court justices are "closely split" on whether the Navy is following environmental laws to protect whales and other marine mammals from sonar off the Southern California coast, according to David Savage of the LA Times.
The case, Winter vs. NRDC, landed in Washington D.C. on Wednesday after the lawsuit was brought forth by the Natural Resources Defense Council in Santa Monica.
The U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ordered the Navy to "shut down its high-intensity sonar whenever a whale or marine mammal is spotted within 1.25 miles of the ship," according to the Times.
But the Bush administration and its lawyers contend that in war time operations and exercises, paramount to national security, the government has the right to make decisions of whether to shut down sonar. U.S. Solicitor Gen. Gregory G. Garre, asked the judge to throw out the former ruling by a Los Angeles court judge.
The issue now has developed into whether or not a judge has the right to decide whether to stop government projects to the requirements of protecting marine mammals.
But environmentalists state that whales, dolphins and other marine mammals dive deep into the ocean to escape the high frequency sounds and can end up bleeding and sometimes die when they come up to the surface.
A dolphin washed up on the shores of San Nicolas Island in January this year, during the final stages of the Navy's sonar exercises, commonly linked to the death of whales and other ocean mammals, the Times reported.
San Nicolas Island, which is owned by the Navy, is the farthest out of the Channel Islands off the coast of California, passed Santa Catalina Island. The Navy also tests rockets on the Island, which commonly known to inhabit elephant seals.
The dolphin was found with blood in its ear canals and other fluid, common symptoms also shown on whales who were discovered with similar conditions before. The discovery on Jan. 29 was very small compared to the many whales found strewn on the Canary Islands in 2000.
The federal court order would require that the Navy shutdown all sonar operations when whales are 2,200 yards within range and some spots near the Channel Islands.
The Navy will release an official environmental impact statement come next February when all their exercises are complete this year.
The justices will decide their official ruling within the next few months, according to the Times.