On January 28, 14 conservation groups, including The Southern Environmental Law Center, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, and The Humane Society of the United States, banded together to challenge the U.S. Navy’s decision to build its $100 million Undersea Warfare Training Range next to the only known calving ground for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

These whales currently number at most 400, and that’s after 39 births this past year, the most in decades. Just when the whales appeared to be coming back, the Navy is set to disrupt their sanctuary.

“Right whales shouldn’t be subjected to the threats that accompany this range - ship strikes, entanglement and noise disturbance - in the only place in the world where vulnerable females give birth to and care for their calves,” said Catherine Wannamaker, an attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center in a recent press release. “While we recognize the Navy’s need to train, there are ways to accommodate that need without introducing multiple risks of harm into such a sensitive area.”

The lawsuit notes (PDF),

The Navy first announced its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) in 1996, and identified its alternative sites no later than 2005; nonetheless, it began biologically surveying its selected location for right whales and other species only in February of 2009.

It attempts to bypass the environmental impact by beginning the construction now, but waiting to issue a permit to actually use the facility until after the environmental impact has been determined. The lawsuit points out that this violates a number of laws, including the Administrative Procedure Act and the Endangered Species Act, and begs the question, “Who believes the Navy would spend $100 million to build this and then not use it?”

“The Navy’s decision to pass off an undersea warfare training range as just a construction project is an obvious dodge of environmental protections for right whales and commercially valuable marine life,” said Wannamaker. “Proceeding with construction locks in public funds and location before the range is evaluated and approved for ship traffic, sonar, and debris near the only known nursery for right whales and within areas critical to commercially valuable marine life.”

(Image: NOAA)

This is a critical year for many endangered species, as the Obama Administration has proposed to cut funding or flatline budgets for key conservation programs; including listing, recovery, candidate conservation, and law enforcement, according to a recent report from the Center for Biological Diversity. This withdrawal has left the door open for federal projects that could have disastrous effects on these fragile wildlife populations, but conservation groups are fighting back against this oversight.

The Navy wants to build the warfare training range just 50 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida. Local residents, who celebrate the whales’ arrival each year, and know all too well the horrific consequences of a boat colliding with the large marine mammals, are appalled that the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency in charge of protecting the whales, has given the Navy a green light.

Despite objections by Georgia and Florida, conservation groups, and scientists, the Navy proceeded with its plans while ignoring recommended measures that could have lessened the impact of its activities.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission told the Navy in a 2006 letter:

The winter inhabitants off the coast of Jacksonville include the most vulnerable component of the right whale population. The additional noise levels and increased vessel traffic could jeopardize the females and calves of a species that is already at high risk of extinction…. We believe the importance of the southeastern calving grounds to the persistence of the species renders the Jacksonville [operating area] inappropriate.

“The science here is settled,” said Steve Roady of Earthjustice. “Right whales are critically endangered and the government knows it. Under the circumstances, it is baffling that NMFS and the Navy could be planning to proceed with this project that places so many of these whales at risk. This is decidedly not sound science; it is fundamentally unsound.”

(Image: NOAA)

The book International History of Marine Protected Areas by the Ocean Studies Board and Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources points out that “the concept of protecting marine areas from fishing and other human activities is not new.” Areas have often been excluded from commercial use so that heavily fished populations could be allowed to recuperate. While there are several whale sanctuaries located around the globe, most of them are managed by the International Whaling Commission, a group that has come under criticism by conservationists for its lax attitude toward commercial whaling.

Although not known for his environmental conservation policies, President Bush did designate areas of the ocean as preserves for marine life, setting aside three vast new marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean on January 6, 2009. The monuments include seven largely uninhabited Central Pacific islands, the Rose Atoll and 500 square miles of surrounding waters in the South Pacific, and an area of more than 118,000 square miles around the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mariana Trench.