The AcousticEcology.org News Digest contains the latest information on the full range of sound issues and research. Here you'll find issues updates and recent news items, drawn from a wide range of sources, including both science and general interest press from around the world, as well as alerts from environmental organizations.

Follow links above for more detail on specific topics; issue areas will summarize key themes, while the Archives hold news items of interest. The Acoustic Ecology Institute has also prepared a number of more in-depth Special Reports on key and recurring topics of interest. At the bottom of this page you will find current Action Alerts and event notices.

Towns Seek Setbacks for Wind Turbines to Protect Residents from Noise, Companies Concerned - Across the eastern and central United States and Canada, small towns are writing ordinances to govern wind farm development, grappling with uncertainty about reasonable buffer zones to assure that residents will not be disturbed by turbine noise. In recent months, stories about several specific wind farms that have caused noise complaints have circulated more widely, raising local concerns elsewhere about the common practice of using 1000- to 1500-foot setbacks (with Mars Hill in Maine and Allegheny Ridge in Pennsylvania being the most commonly cited). The research and testimony of two doctors, one in New York and one in Italy, and several acoustics consultants, all of whom advocate for much larger buffers between large turbines and residences, are beginning to influence local towns to adopt more stringent ordinances, which energy companies say will severely limit their abilty to find suitable sites for wind farms. The Lyme (NY) Town Counil recently required that turbines remain 4500 feet from Lake Ontario, a local river and two villages. The Logan Township (PA) Board of Supervisors tabled a scheduled vote on a new ordinance that would establish a 2500 setback from neighboring property lines, deciding they need to gather more information, especially about noise impacts. "You guys aren't going to pick up [the wind turbines] and move them," Supervisor Ed Frontino said. Supervisors Chairman Frank Meloy said he visited Todd and Jill Stull in Juniata Township, who recently sued the company that built turbines that created much more noise than promised. He and other township officials toured that farm last week with Gamesa representatives. "I would not want to live with that noise day in and day out," Meloy said. Meanwhile, the Chatham-Kent (Ontario) Council discussed proposals from Councilor Jim Brown to establish mandatory setbacks of up to 1.5km based on commercial or residential nature of the location. "I don't believe we have formal enough zoning in place - we have to have something firm," said Brown. "We should have these setbacks in place before we go any further." Establishing a clear scientific, and thus legally defensible, basis for any given setback is very difficult, leading Brown's fellow councilors to call for more information. And in West Providence (PA), the Township instituted an ordinance that requires a 2500 foot setback from any neighboring residence, and 2000 feet from property lines. The accompanying noise limits are relatively modest, at 45dB; Calumet County (WI) recently adopted a much more stringent noise limit [SEE RELATED STORY] Sources: Watertown Daily Times, 5/7/08 [READ ARTICLE] Altoona Mirror, 5/9/08 [READ ARTICLE] Chatham Daily News, 5/6/08 [READ ARTICLE] West Providence Wind Ordinance, 4/7/08 [READ EXCERPT]
[See AEI Special Report: Wind Turbine Noise Impacts]

Seismic Surveys at Forefront of Offshore Alaska Development Resistance - A surge in lease sales along Alaska's west and north coasts has spurred predictable resistance from locals and environmental groups. While the effect of any possible oil spills in harsh waters is certainly a major focus of concerns being voiced, the impacts of the first phase of oil and gas exploration have moved to the forefront of discussions. The oil industry is gearing up to explore a record number of offshore lease areas in the next few years, and this summer, up to five seismic survey vessels are scheduled to be off the Alaskan coast, firing airguns 2-4 times per minute and listening for the echoes coming up from below the seafloor, searching for likely drilling locations. Earthjustice and the REDOIL Network, an Alaska Native grassroots organization that includes members of the Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Tlingit, Gwich'in, Eyak, and Dena'ina Athabascan tribes filed suit this week to block seismic exploration in the Beafort and Chuckchi Seas, challenging permits issued by the Minerals Management Service, in conjunction with NMFS. Sources: The Daily Green, 5/6/08 [READ ARTICLE] Reuters, 5/5/06 [READ ARTICLE] Earthjustice Press Release, 5/5/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE]
Related: Bristol Bay Oil and Gas Planning Announced by MMS; CBD Vows to Stop Leasing Process Due to Critical Habitat Designation - The Minerals Management Service has officially announced the start of a planning process to consider a 2011 lease sale for offshore oil and gas exploration in the North Aleutian Basin in Alaska. The publication of the proposal marks the start of the process, which will involve a public comment period and months of gathering information for an environmental impact statement, said Robin Cacy, a minerals service spokeswoman in Anchorage. "No decisions have been made on the sale. This is just the beginning," she said. The area, which had been protected from drilling since 1990, is north of the Aleutian Islands near Bristol Bay. On the same day that the plan was announced, NMFS published its final decision naming parts of the lease sale as Critical Habitat for the North Pacific right whale. Based on this and other concerns, the Center for Biological Diversity, which spurred the critical habitat decision process with a 2006 lawsuit, also announced plans to sue to stop the lease sale planning. "It would completely eviscerate the protections that critical habitat are supposed to provide," said CBD's Brendan Cummings. "If there is actual development — tanker traffic, drilling noise, industrial disturbance — it will turn an area that is relatively pristine into an industrial zone. The whale's grip on existence is so tenuous as it is that this will likely push it over the edge toward extinction." Cacy said MMS is collaborating with the National Marine Fisheries Service on a $5 million study of the whales. Their distribution, numbers and habitat will be studied over a more than three-year period – enough time the agency says to collect environmental data on animals that could be affected by offshore drilling. “We are going to be striving to get the best scientific information available,” she said. Bristol Bay commercial fishermen also oppose drilling there. The bay, which was put off limits to drilling after the devastating 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, has huge annual catches of salmon, cod, king crab and herring. Sources: AP, 4/8/08 [READ ARTICLE] Nature, 4/10/08 [READ ARTICLE] Mobile Press-Register, 4/11/08 [READ ARTICLE] [MMS ALASKA WEBSITE]

Pennsylvania Couple Sues to Stop Noise from Wind Farm - Todd and Jill Stull of Portage, Pennsylvania have sued the operators of the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm, alleging that the turbines near their homes create noise in excess of local regulatory limits. Attorney Bradley Tupi, representing the Stulls, alleges in the lawsuit that Gamesa Energy misrepresented to local officials the noise levels from the turbines to get approvals for construction of the wind farm. "They assured the officials in the township in question that the turbines would be quiet. The turbines are quite loud. They wake Dr. Stull up and he must go to the basement to sleep," Tupi said Thursday. In April, Stull told Portage Township officials the excess noise does not occur all of the time, but is determined by operating speed, wind velocity and direction and other conditions. Neighbors living nearby have complained for months that - during some weather and wind conditions - the turbines operate more loudly than the 45 decibels spelled out in local laws, a sound level that is compared to the sound of a residential refrigerator. Stull calls that comparison laughable. "This must be Paul Bunyan's refrigerator sitting on my hill. That's ridiculous," he said at a recent Portage Township supervisors meeting at which plans to hire outside sound consultants to measure noise levels. Sources: Tribune-Democrat, 5/4/08 [READ ARTICLE] [ARCHIVED SOURCE] Tribune-Democrat, 4/28/08 [READ ARTICLE]
[See AEI Special Report: Wind Turbine Noise Impacts]

John Luther Adams Feature in The New Yorker - In a departure from our normal definition of "news" here, I want to point you to a fantastic profile of composer John Luther Adams in this week's New Yorker. The lengthy piece gives John plenty of space to talk about his uniquely rooted music, as well as travel with him into the Alaskan landscape his music so movingly evokes. It begins with the writer's experience in a museum installation of JLA's, which creates a real-time musical evocation of seasonal, diurnal, earthquake, and northern lights activity in Fairbanks. During a walk on Lake Louise, the author watches Adams: "The lake was covered with ice four feet thick, and, after spending the night at a local lodge, we went for a walk. The sun was burning faintly through the mist above. Periodically, a curtain of snow descended and the shores and islands of the lake disappeared from view. I noticed that Adams was listening closely to this seemingly featureless expanse, and kept pulling information from it: the fluttering of a flock of snow buntings, the low whistle of wind through a stand of gaunt spruce, the sinister whine of a pair of snowmobiles. He also noted the curiously musical noises that our feet were making. Tapping the crust of snow atop the ice, under which the wind had carved little tunnels, he compared the sounds to those of xylophones or marimbas." Source: The New Yorker, 5/12/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Cheney's Office Behind Administration Foot-dragging on NMFS-Approved Ship Speed Limits Along Mid-Atlantic Coast - Representative Harry Waxman, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, has released letters documenting vigorous objections by NOAA to delays in approving a rule to require ships to slow down witin 30 miles of port, a measure designed to avoid whale strikes, with the extra benefit of reducing sound levels. Waxman has formally requested that the White House Office of Regulatory Affairs act on the rule, as they were supposed to do months ago. In the letter, Waxman notes that "officials working for the Vice President raised spurious objections to the science. According to this document, the Vice President's staff 'contends that we have no evidence (i.e., hard data) that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference.' NOAA rejected these objections, writing that both a statistical analysis of ship strike records and the peer-reviewed literature justified the final rule. In its response to the objections from the Vice President's staff, NOAA reported that there is 'no basis to overturn our previous conclusion that imposing a speed limit on large vessels would be beneficial to whales.'" Sources: Letter from Waxman, 4/30/08 [READ LETTER] House Oversight Committee Press Release, 4/30/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE] New York Times, 5/1/08 [READ ARTICLE] TPM, 4/30/08 [READ ARTICLE]
Previous: Interior Dept Drags Feet on Ship Slowing Plan for Mid-Atlantic - North Atlantic right whales are migrating north from winter calving grounds, and airplane-based spotters are watching for them in order to notify shippers of their whereabouts. When seven adult whales were spotted off Charleston, SC, recently, spotter Patricia Naessig said, "They still have a bit of a gantlet to pass. There’s a huge amount of shipping interests in Charleston Harbor.” More than a year ago the NMFS announced plans to impose a 10 knot speed limit within 30 miles of ports; the White House Office of Management and Budget was supposed to review the rule within 120 days, but has yet to allow it to be implemented. Under the current voluntary speed reduction regime, a 2005 survey found that 95% of ships notified of whales did not slow down or skirt the area, as biologists would prefer. Ship companies, port authorities, pilot associations, the Navy and even operators of whale watch tours have opposed the rule, saying that the permitted speed would be too low for safe steerage, that foreign vessels cannot be forced to follow American speed limits or that the restriction would cost too much. They also object to the fact that private boats cannot be regulated in similar ways; indeed, increasing recreational boating is a major concern of biologists in the area. Reduced speed limits have the added benefit of greatly reducing the "sound footprint" of any given ship as it traverses coastal waters. Source: New York Times, 4/12/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Wisconsin Country Implements Strict Noise Regulations on Wind Turbines; Company Declares "War to End All Wars" - Calumet County, in eastern Wisonsin, recently faced a dilemma that is increasingly common in rural America: an outside company had appeared in their region, planning to build wind farms and seeking permits. Many local governmental bodies have taken a cursory look at complex reports submitted by companies, taken assurances of "no noise" at face value, and later regretted not learning more. The Calument County Board of Supervisors took two years to consider the issue, and in March instituted a carefully considered ordinance to govern wind farm development that is exceedingly (perhaps even excessively) weighted toward protection of local residents from noise impacts. Two requirements are especially striking: a requirement that turbine noise not exceed 5dB over the current background sound levels during the quietest part of the day (night) will assure that turbines will not make any dramatic changes the overall sonic ambience of the rural landscape, and a related requirement that excessive low-frequency noise at any nearby residence will require shut-down of the offending turbine. In addition, when the turbine noise is repetitive (as can occur due to blades passing the tower), or contains pure tones (occasionally caused by mechanical issues), the 5dB requirement is futher reduced to 0dB. Both of these requirements likely far exceed the protections that would be imposed by the setback standard, which is 1800 feet. Midwest Wind Energy, the company planning the wind farm, responded two days later by announcing that these requirements would preclude the development, and that it would expand its plans (combining turbines proposed for several towns and adding a few turbines), so that the project is large enough to become subject to state regulation, superceding the local ordinance. Despite the delays (18 months plus litigation time) and cost ($2 to 4 million dollars), the company said that it is "fully committed to this effort as we now see this as "the war to end all wars" regarding wind power in Wisconsin." Indeed, even local officials concur that the company likely has the guns to win this war: "It's just a matter of time," said Peter Dorn, a member of the county's Planning, Zoning and Farmland Preservation Committee. "Any time the state government steps in and recognizes its dealing with a big industry, local control is going to end." Still, there is a sense that local ordinances such as this, and another county which imposed a one-mile setback, could influence state regulators and legislators to give due consideration to local concerns about noise impacts. Sources: Calument County Press Release, 3/20/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE] [CALUMENT COUNTY ORDINANCE] Tri-County News, 3/26/08 [READ ARTICLE] Daily Reporter, 3/18/08 [READ ARTICLE] Midwest Wind Energy Memorandum, 3/20/08 [READ MEMO] Post-Crescent, 3/15/08 [READ ARTICLE]
Ed. note: This is perhaps a prelude of similar debates that are likely to occur as experiences of those closest to wind farms spread to other rural communities; while the specifics of the Calumet County regulations are extreme (though not necessarily inappropriate), it is clear that the laissez-faire attitudes of the past have led to real problems for many people living within a half mile or mile of turbines. [See AEI Special Report: Wind Turbine Noise Impacts]

Rash of UK Strandings of Deep-diving Whales Raise Questions - Since the beginning of this year, beaked whales and pilot whales have been showing up on Scottish and Irish beaches in unprecedented numbers. At least 17 bodies have been found in Ireland, and 24 in Scotland. "In the majority of cases, the animals died at sea and washed ashore in an advanced state of decomposition, which raises the question of how many others stranded in inaccessible locations or did not wash ashore at all," said Mick O'Connell of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. Most have been found on commonly-visited beaches, so are unlikely to have been on shore for long without being seen. In early February, several strandings took place in northern Scotland; these strandings were the first to became public, in early April, along with speculation that they may have died at seas as much as two weeks prior to coming ashore. In response to questions since then, the UK Navy has said that no vessels were in that area using sonar at time of the February strandings; it is unclear how specific they have been about the timeline in the week or two preceding the strandings, or whether they have addressed earlier or later periods, during which other Irish and Scottish strandings have occurred. While the decomposed bodies cannot provide clear indications of the cause of death, a few of the victims have been fresh; it is unclear whether tissue samples have been taken of any of the bodies. Almost all discoveries have been of a single animal. Both beaked and pilot whales are deep-diving species; beaked whales strandings have been associated with sonar-related injuries in some cases, while pilot whales are found stranded fairly commonly, very often in groups. Meanwhile, a routine training exercise is about to begin off the Scottish coast, involving 36 warships and about 70 aircraft from the UK and 16 NATO countries. Sources: Irish Independent, 4/20/08 [READ ARTICLE] BBC, 4/18/08 [READ ARTICLE] Independent, 4/7/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Wind Turbine Syndrome: Can Wind Farm Noise Make People Sick? - While reports of nearby industrial wind farms causing annoyance with their noise are becoming fairly common, a physician who has been looking at the most severe complaints has coined a phrase: “wind turbine syndrome.” Nina Pierpont, a New York pediatrician who has taught at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, has found a consistent cluster of symptoms associated with people living under wind turbines, including sleep problems, headaches that increase in severity, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion, anger and irritability. “A setback of 1.5 miles from homes, schools, hospitals and similar institutes will probably be adequate … to protect people from the adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines,” she recommended to the New York legislature. In UK, MD Amanda Harry’s research documented 39 people living from 1,000 feet to about 1.5 miles from turbines whose health was clearly being affected. She found that the sounds fluctuated, depending on the wind strength and direction. But she wrote that she thought the cases she found were only “the tip of the iceberg.” At the New University of Lisbon in Portugal, professor Mariana Alves-Pereira has found that sounds occurring at or below the frequency band 500 Hz could cause a similar set of symptoms that she has termed “vibro-acoustic” disease. Last year her research team obtained detailed acoustical measurements of a home near four turbines, and Pereira concluded that the sounds were high enough to be associated with vibro-acoustic disease. Kenneth Smith, a Kansas City area audiologist, says such low-frequency sounds can cause health disorders — but cautions that much more study needs to be done on turbines. “This has to make you nervous as a scientist,” said Smith, a founder of Hearing Associates and a fellow with the American Academy of Audiology. “It’s risky to draw conclusions.” Source: Kansas City Star, 4/12/08 [READ ARTICLE] [NINA PIERPONT WEBSITE]
[See AEI Special Report: Wind Turbine Noise Impacts]

National Landscape Conservation System Protects Remote, Quiet Locations - With the House passage of permanent status for the National Landscape Conservation System, remote landscapes move one step closer to becoming true refuges for experiencing natural quiet in a vast array of western US habitats. The Senate still needs to sign on to the proposal, which would provide coherent management of BLM lands including National Monuments, Wild and Scenic Rivers, wilderness and conservation areas, and national historic trails. In contrast to National Parks and many National Forests, most of the NLCS lands are remote, with few roads or developed campgrounds. As Jim DiPesco, of Republicans for Environmental Protection, notes, "To truly experience isolation and thoroughly escape 21st century sounds, the NLCS lands are a good destination." He elaborates that "the idea behind the system is to protect unspoiled scenery and historical treasures within the broader landscapes that shape, influence, and provide context. Healthy ecosystems, which thrive on hidden connections among plants, animals, and native habitats, can best function within larger landscapes that allow room for those connections to flourish. Likewise, archaeological sites can best be appreciated if the surrounding geography that influenced ancient cultures is largely left alone." Source: The Daily Green, 4/12/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Eavesdropping on Noisy Fish - The National Marine Fisheries Service is turning to passive acoustics--ie, listening via hydrophones--in its efforts to identify key spawning grounds for fish species. By listening to the underwater soundscape, there are a lot of things we can determine about what’s out there and what they are doing,” said Brandon Southall, director of the ocean acoustics program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency hopes that passive acoustics can help identify breeding grounds in need of protection and can be used as a tool to assess population numbers accurately. Such noninvasive techniques would be a big step forward, Dr. Lobel of Boston University said. “Without passive acoustics, they have to catch endangered fish like cod and cut them open to see if they are ripe with eggs,” he said. “They have been killing tons of fish just to find out where they are spawning.” Increasing appreciation for the wide range of fish species that rely on sound has raised some concern about whether shipping noise could make it more difficult for fish to find each other at spawning time, or for predators to find food; “The Top ten species of fish in the diet of a dolphin make sounds,” according to Joseph J. Luczkovich, an associate professor of biology at East Carolina. Source: New York Times, 4/8/08 (article includes collection of fish sounds and a nice video report) [READ ARTICLE]

IMO Considers Antarctic, Hawaiian Shipping Impacts; US Urges Consideration of Shipping Noise - The annual meeting of the International Maritime Organization's Marine Environment Protection committee included consideration of two issues related to shipping noise. The Committee invited countries to submit proposals to reduce environmental impacts of increasing tourist-related shipping in Antarctic waters, after an environmental consortium the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition raised the issue in a paper that highlighted several accidents and fuel spills that took place in a 13-month period. While most of the concern at this point is focused on contaminating the pristine waters and coastlines, the relative "natural quiet" in Antarctic waters has also been noted, with the area offering some of the best possibilities for protecting the acoustic integrity of ocean habitat. The Committee also declared the new he Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii as a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area," triggering new mapping of biologically and culturally important areas to be avoided by ships, and a reporting procedure for shippers moving through the area. In a related development, the US delegation submitted and "Information Document" to the committee, urging the IMO and individual countries to encourage dialogue with shipping industry and support ongoing research into the effects of rising low-frequency noise from shipping on ocean species; no specific action was called for, as this is the first step in moving the topic onto the table at IMO meetings. Sources: BBC, 4/7/08 [READ ARTICLE] Marine Technology Society News Release, 4/7/08 [READ RELEASE] [DOWNLOAD US INFORMATION DOCUMENT(pdf)]

How Strong is a Hurricane? Just Listen - An MIT researcher has established the first concrete data supporting his idea that hurricane intensity could be tracked by listening to the sounds of wind and waves, rather than the far more expensive fly-throughs by aircraft. Nicholas Makris, associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering and director of MIT's Laboratory for Undersea Remote Sensing, found data from a hydrophone that happened to be in the path of Hurricane Gert in 1999. "There was almost a perfect relationship between the power of the wind and the power of the wind-generated noise," he says. There was less than 5 percent error--about the same as the errors you get from aircraft measurements. Wilson suggests that a line of acoustic sensors could be dropped from a small plane into the ocean ahead of the storm's path, while conditions are still safe, and could then provide detailed information on the storm's strength to aid in planning and decision-making about possible evacuations. The total cost for such a deployment would be a small fraction of the cost of even a single flight into the storm. In addition, permanent lines of such sensors could be deployed offshore in storm-prone areas, such as the Sea of Bengal off India and Bangladesh. Source: MIT News Office, 4/9/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Listening Buoys Deployed in Shipping Lanes Near Boston - Ten hydrohones installed in December in and near Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary are now active, monitoring the busy shipping lanes for whales. When a whale is heard, tanker captains are notified within a half hour, and required to slow down (which reduces noise) and post lookouts, so that fewer extremely endangered North Atlantic right whales are killed by ship strikes. The listening network will also help scientists to understand how the whales respond to the approach of ships. "A lot of the coastline throughout the world is becoming industrialized," said Sofie Van Parijs, a bioacoustician at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. You have to know what you are listening for to understand what is going on, Van Parijs said. "Most of the time, there is boat noise, and it's like living near a highway, and then every now and then you hear a whale coming through, like a bird flying by, singing," she said. Although humpbacks are known for their "singing" abilities, most of the whale sounds are creaking clicks, like a slowly opening door on a rusty hinge, or the distinctive "r-r-r-rooop" sound that right whales make. But ship noise is always present. Researchers are actually hoping for a big storm that drives all vessels to port, to record what Stellwagen sounds like without machinery's din. Sources:Cape Cod Online, 4/2/08 [READ ARTICLE] Boston Globe, 4/7/08 [READ ARTICLE] Science Daily, 4/3/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE]
See also: Project leader Chris Clark of Cornell has launched a new website that tracks whale detections each day, and includes audio and video about the project. [CORNELL LISTEN FOR WHALES WEBSITE]
Bigger Picture: Stellwagen Sanctuary Noise Monitoring to be Model for "Sound Budget" Research Worldwide - The hydrophone array deployed in Stellwagen Bank is far more than a ship-strike warning system; it is the first large field test of what many bioacousticians have been long calling for: a global network of monitoring systems that will dramatically increase our understanding of the distribution of human noise in the world's oceans, and the ways local animals respond. NOAA researcher Sofie Van Parijs says the Sanctuary is a perfect place to build a case study that can provide a benchmark to scientifically evaluate the impacts and interactions between various human-produced sounds and acoustically-sensitive marine animals. The abundance of endangered whales and human activities in the Sanctuary will help the team address many of the recommendations made by the National Research Council’s committee on the potential impacts of ambient noise in the ocean on marine mammals. The committee has cited the importance of sound in the lives of marine mammals, the potential for harm from excessive noise, and the lack of scientific data as to the amounts of noise introduced into the oceans by human activities and its potential impact on marine mammals. “We need to ground-truth current sampling and analysis techniques and identify gaps that must be addressed prior to implementing a large-scale domestic or international monitoring program,” Van Parijs said. “The products of this project will be a suite of tools designed to be transferable for use in other ecological regions or sanctuaries along with an extensive database of sounds. This project is a first step toward a much larger goal of establishing a global passive acoustic monitoring network to measure ambient noise levels in a variety of locations.” Source: NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center press release, 4/1/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE]

Navy Looks to Supreme Court for Sonar Relief - The US Navy has, as widely expected, asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a Federal Appeals Court that upheld a lower court ruling imposing a larger buffer zone and other additional operational restrictions on its sonar training in southern California. The Justice Department petition argues that the restrictions jeopardize the Navy's ability to train sailors and Marines for service in wartime, and could possibly prevent certification of some naval strike groups preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf. The agency also contends that national security interests can trump those of marine mammals, and that its use of mid-frequency sonar in training exercises hasn't caused any documented harm to dolphins or beaked whales in the waters where they're conducted. "We believe that this is an issue that is absolutely essential to national security and that a Supreme Court review of this case is warranted," said Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Navy spokesman. The Navy specifically addressed two key restrictions: "The 2200 yard shutdown zone has a radius eleven times greater than the existing zone developed in consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, effectively imposing a 4.9-square mile shutdown zone around each of our ships. The requirement to reduce sonar power during significant surface ducting conditions would prevent our ships from detecting submarines in the very conditions in which submarines seek to hide, even when marine mammals are nowhere in sight." The NRDC, which is lead plaintiff in the legal challenges to the Navy's procedures, noted that the lower courts had concluded that hundreds of beaked whales would be exposed to sonar signals, and expressed confidence that the legal foundation of the rulings would stand. "We expected the Navy to seek review in the Supreme Court but we'd be surprised if the court agrees to take the case," said NRDC lawyer Cara Horowitz. NRDC feels that the lower court ruling are "fact-based" rather than interpreting legal precedent, making Supreme Court review unlikely; the Navy legal team may see it differently, as they feel the lower courts have misintrerpreted aspects of the impact analysis. Still, the dispute is over science and operational procedures more than legal issues; whether the Supremes will choose to wade into such difficult waters remains to be seen. Sources: AP, 3/31/08 [READ ARTICLE] Navy News Service, 4/1/08 [READ ARTICLE] The Jurist, 4/4/08 [READ ARTICLE] City on a Hill Press, 4/10/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Navy Releases Southern California Sonar Draft EIS, Proposals Fall Short of Court Orders - The Navy has released its long-planned Draft Environmental Impact Statement on offshore training exercises in Southern California, including the use of mid-frequency active sonar. Recent legal challenges to the Navy training, in which a circuit court judge imposed additional restrictions on use and an appeals court upheld the ruling, have been based on both the Navy's previous lack of comprehensive environmental analysis, and on the standing of the California Coastal Commission to impose its own restrictions beyond those imposed by the federal National Marine Fisheries Service. The DEIS continues to make the case that the Navy's existing operational procedures, developed in consort with NMFS, provide adequate protection to marine life; California state officials and laywers told the press that they are likely to challenge the final EIS if additional safety measures are not added. One such court-ordered restriction, a 12-mile coastal buffer zone free of sonar, was addressed by Capt. Neil May of the Navy's 3rd Fleet in San Diego, who said the coastal buffer would block ships from using sonar when helping the Marine Corps practice landings on the beaches of Camp Pendleton. To make such exercises more realistic, he said, the Navy would like submarines to try to sneak up on the expeditionary strike groups. "We will push back on anything that inhibits realistic training or strays from science," May said. Comments on the DEIs will be accepted through May 19. This is one of several regional EISs that the Navy is aiming to complete during 2008 and 2009. Sources: LATimes, 4/4/08 [READ ARTICLE] [NAVY SOCAL RANGE COMPLEX WEBSITE]
Related: Hawaii Restrictions Frustrate Navy - After conducting a series of training exercises in which recent court-ordered restrictions were followed, the Navy expressed concern that such restrictions would hamper training if imposed permanently. “[The court order] adds up to a very complicated situation that forces the sailors aboard those ships to devote more time and attention to marine mammal issues than to the anti-submarine warfare training that’s the point of the exercise,” said Capt. W. Scott Gureck, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet. Paul Achitoff, an Earthjustice attorney representing several groups that sued the Navy over sonar use in Hawaii waters, questioned the Navy's claim, noting that “There are a bunch of vessels in each exercise, so you’ve probably got 1,000 personnel out there on the water, and probably only about six of them have to even think about marine mammals, or maybe 10, or whatever, and the rest of them are doing completely other things,” Achitoff said. “So the [Navy] statement is absurd on its face.” The training impact of other additional safety measures, more substantial than manpower devoted to observing whales, including larger zones in which sonar must be powered down, were not addressed by either side in the exchange. Source: Honolulu Advertiser, 3/31/08 [READ ARTICLE]
[See AEI Special Report: Active Sonars]

Urban Noise Threatens Dawn Chorus and Bird Populations - European researchers are increasingly concerned about accumulating evidence that urban and suburban noise is having dramatic effects on bird populations. Some birds may be adapting by developing new behaviors, perhaps changing dramatically enough to be considered new species: nightengales sing up to 14dB more loudly in the city (some at 95dB, enough to cause discomfort to human ears), great tits are singing at a higher pitch, and robins have abandoned their noisy dawn (i.e. rush hour) chorus and now sing at night, when it is quieter. Birds must hear each other in order to mate and warn each other of predators. Declining populations of house sparrows (down by two-thirds over the past couple of decades) and overall bird populations (down 20% in the past four years) could be due to difficulty in finding mates, or abandonment of urban and suburban habitat. Source: Daily Mail, 3/26/08 [READ ARTICLE]

California Appeals Court Hands Navy Sonar Setback; Supreme Court May be Next - The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday night rejected the Navy's appeal of restrictions that banned high-powered sonar within 12 nautical miles of the coast and set other limits that could affect Navy training exercises to begin this month. One of the key measures upheld by the court was the maintenance of a 2200-yard safety zone, with sonar being shut down if a whale enters that radius; the Navy called for a 200-yard shut-down zone, with power-reductions starting only when a whale came within 1000 yards. Navy commanders suggest the expanded radius will cause disruptions to training, necessitating shut downs five times as often. The appeals court closely analyzed Navy documents, and determined that marine mammal monitoring information from the six exercises (out of 14 weeklong missions currently planned) indicate that the 2200-yard safety zone would have only led to 21 extra shut-down in total, or two to three per week of training. They also noted that the Australian Navy maintains a 4400-yard safety zone. The Navy received a key concession from the court, however: for planned training sessions beginning this week, and another set of missions later in the month, the Navy can revert to its preferred power-down distances if a whale enters the 2200-yard zone during a "critical point" in the training. This temporary stay on the new rules is meant to give the Navy time to take its case to the Supreme Court before subsequent trainings. While the Navy maintains that restrictions beyond its own safety measures--including reducing sonar sound levels and prohibiting transmissions in certain ocean conditions that may increase impacts on marine mammals--will hamper their ability to certify crews for overseas deployment, the appeals panel said it reviewed "with the utmost care" the Navy's classified affidavits on such issues and concluded that the proposed additional measures "will not likely compromise the Navy's ability to effectively train and certify its West Coast strike groups." Ed. note: The legal foundation of the initial challenge, and of the ruling, appears to be that the Navy's Environmental Assessment did not fulfill the requirements of NEPA (completing a full Environmental Impact Statement and considering a sufficient range of alternatives), thereby opening the resulting operational standards to challenge; the Appeals Court noted that the District Court specifically rejected related challenges to the NMFS Biological Opinion and permits issued to govern the trainings, centering this case on the failure to comply with NEPA. The Navy is currently conducting full EISs for all sonar training ranges, but until these are completed, it appears that federal courts will keep their feet to the fire about their previous lack of NEPA compliance. Legal challenges to full EISs are somewhat more difficult, but can be founded on claims that reasonable alternatives were NOT considered; it will be interesting to see whether the Navy chooses to include formal alternatives that mirror some of the conditions that the courts, and other MFA users, have considered reasonable but that the Navy considers unneccesarily excessive (i.e., not providing significant additional biological protection, while impeding key aspects of training/operations). Sources: LA Times, 3/2/08 [READ ARTICLE] San Francisco Chronicle, 3/2/08 [READ ARTICLE] Navy News Service, 3/3/08 [READ ARTICLE] Jurist, 3/3/08 (includes pdf links to all relevant rulings) [READ ARTICLE]
[See AEI Special Report: Active Sonars]

Massive Offshore Oil Exploration Planned off Scotland - The UK government has announced the 25th offshore leasing round, a "record-breaking" offering of nearly 2300 development blocks, including nearly the entire coast of Scotland. "This represents the most substantial threat to Scotland's seas in the modern age," warned Green MSP Robin Harper, who demanded that UK ministers abandon the plans, and called on the SNP government in Edinburgh to oppose them. The UK secretary of state for energy, John Hutton, was positive: "We have been careful to avoid harming dolphins and other sea life that thrive in these areas in the past and will continue to do so," he said. Special concern is being raised about widespread seismic surveying of the region. "The latest research shows that the impacts of the kind of seismic surveys planned for Scottish waters may be greater than previously thought, with sounds travelling further, and with higher frequencies being produced," said Dr Chris Parsons from George Mason University in Virginia, US. A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: "The regulation of oil and gas exploration is reserved to Westminster. In order to obtain a licence to explore any given area, oil and gas companies or seismic operators need to apply to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Applications are subject to detailed scrutiny." Sunday Herald, 3/3/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Kids Wail in Elk Call Competition - Schafer Bungay, a 5-year-old from Kalispell, Mont., recently won the Pee Wee Division at the annual World Elk Calling championships. Schafer, the youngest of 14 competitors, got on stage and moved his lips up, down and sideways, as if imitating a fish. “Cow moan,” his father whispered. Schafer moaned impressively. “Cow mew.” “Mmmmmeeeyew,” Schafer responded, the corners of his mouth curling and pouting. “Elk calling is like his first language,” his father, Troy, said. “He started this when he was 1. You can’t teach it at that age. He just does it.” (thearticle link includes two great recordings of the kids' practicing and competing) Source: New York Times, 2/27/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Blue Whale Deaths Surge in SoCal: Ships Strikes, Not Sonar is Cause, but Noise May Be Factor - An unprecedented surge in blue whale deaths in Southern California last year has raised concerns about shipping and noise in the busy shipping lanes there. Five blue whales were found dead on beaches last fall, and the three that were fresh enough to examine showed clear signs of being killed by ship strikes; examination of ear tissues showed now sign of hearing damage, and mid-frequency active sonar is not a factor. However, the researchers from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, who performed the analysis of the whales, note that ambient noise levels in the area could have made it difficult for the whales to hear approaching ships, especially if they were directly in front of them, where the ship itself creates a sound shadow, blocking the noise of its engines. The whales were lingering in the shipping channels because their primary food, krill, were congregated there. During October and part of November, ships voluntarily cut their speed in half, to ten knots, and no whales were killed during that time. A National Marine Sanctuary committee formed in response to the rash of deaths last year will monitor blue whale locations this summer and fall, in hopes of averting a similar situation. Source: Santa Barbara Independent, 2/27/08 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Ship Noise in Santa Barbara Channel Studied - A hydrophone deployed on the ocean floor in the Santa Barbara Channel is listening in on passing ships and resident and transient whales; researchers from Scripps Institute will analyze the results in an effort to learn more about whether increasing shipping noise is hampering whale communication. Blue whales are the most commonly heard, and also the species whose calls occur in the frequency ranges dominated by ship noise. Megan McKenna, doctoral candidate at Scripps, says, "These animals evolved in a much quieter environment. You've got to think there has to be some threshold of them being able to use their acoustic capabilities in this noisy environment." If whales are communicating with one another about feeding opportunities at the same frequency as the ship's noise, there's a chance the whales won't have the knowledge of food sources they normally would, McKenna said. Ship noise could be loud enough to drown out whale calls about three hours a day, she said, when the most ships are present. Robert Ovetz, director of Seaflow, a Bay Area-based group that is fighting noise pollution in the sea, said he'd like a speed limit to be imposed in California's four national marine sanctuaries in order to quell some of the noise. Currently, ships have no speed limits. "Our marine sanctuaries are being violated by these superhighways of the sea," he said. The noise may also lead indirectly to the flustered whales being struck by the ships. Such occasions have historically been rare. Between Los Angeles and the Point Reyes Peninsula from 1986 to 2004, only 12 whales are known to have been hit by ships. But between September and October of 2007, three blue whales and two humpbacks were found dead on Southern California beaches with cracked skulls and other injuries plainly suggestive of violent interactions with big metal objects. Another humpback was found in similar condition at Point Reyes this fall. The abrupt increase in ship-whale collisions cannot be ignored, says Ovetz. "This is a record number of highly endangered species being killed by shipping traffic," he charges. Sources: Ventura County Star, 2/19/07 [READ ARTICLE] The Bohemian, 2/6/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Restaurant Noise Turns Diners Off - Zagat Survey's 2008 edition of America's Top Restaurants notes that excessive noise has become the 2nd most common complaint with restaurants, after poor service. Modern spare design is partly to blame, as hard surfaces cause lots of reverberation. "It's become much worse over the last decade," says Marion Kane, a veteran food writer and broadcaster who believes some restaurateurs deliberately create a noisy environment. "There is a mistaken belief - especially among young people - that if you're shouting and it's loud, you're having a good time." While some restaurants tackle the problem, with more fabric as a key element, others relish the new aesthetic. "We're trying to create full-energy restaurants," he says of his two Toronto-area locations, one of which registered a peak of 97 decibels (louder than most sawmills). "If you just want to go out for dinner, there are hundreds of other places that can offer you that." Ten years ago, San Francisco Chronicle became the first daily newspaper to routinely include noise ratings in its restaurant reviews. The "bomb" rating indicates restaurants that measure decibels of 80 or more. "I'm beginning to think we need to add a double-bomb designation," says Michael Bauer, the newspaper's food editor and lead restaurant critic. He tabs modern architecture as the main culprit. Source: Toronto Globe and Mail, 2/14/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Navy Hosts Acoustic Research Conference in Hawaii - One hundred Navy-funded scientists, fleet operators, and environmental staff attended a two-day conference in Hawaii in early February. The gathering, hosted by OPNAV N45, the Navy's environmental readiness command, ended with agreement to hold future gatherings to discuss issues ranging from the direction of future research to procedural improvements. While great progress has been made in recent years, many of the speakers noted that much remains to be learned about how sound behaves underwater and how it affects marine mammals. For example, Dr. Jim Finneran of the Navy Marine Mammal Program said hearing thresholds have been determined for 25 species of marine mammals through painstaking research. Hearing thresholds for the more than 100 other marine mammal species, including all of the large, baleen whales, have not yet been determined. The Navy spends $18 million per year on marine mammal research. "With a strong scientific foundation, we hope to be able to continue the sonar training that's so vital to protecting our Sailors at sea and become even better at preventing harm to marine mammals," said Adm. Robert Willard. "We're not sure some of the environmental organizations share our concern about understanding the science," he added. Source: Hawaii Reporter, 2/12/08 [READ ARTICLE]

New Mexico Town Resists Air Force Training Noise - Residents of Socorro, New Mexico, are raising their voices to question Air Force plans to move low-altitude training missions to a 40-square mile "field laboratory" outside town, run by New Mexico Tech. Notice of the proposal was largely absent, with neither local newspaper reporting on the plan. A local resident discovered the plan just a week before public comment closed on an environmental assessment released in December. He and other residents learned that each operation (dropping supply packs and 1.5-ton pallets) would involve 15 passes over the zone, at ground-skimming altitudes of between 150-300 feet. C-130s hit the noise meter somewhere between a lawnmower and a table saw, at perhaps 15 to 20 decibels beneath the pain threshold. The Air Force said it wanted to move to Socorro because increasing civilian air traffic limited use of drop zones near Albuquerque. An alternate zone at an air base near Roswell also costs too much, it added -- about $122,000 per year. Among the concerns is that the drop zone is just the beginning. The Energetic Materials Testing Center will soon seek a “special-use airspace” designation for its entire 40-square-mile area. According to the environmental assessment, this will enable it “to conduct … air-to-ground gunnery” and blow up things that might project debris thousands of feet into the air. Source: High Country News, 2/11/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Scottish Program Teaches Blind Children to Echolocate - A pilot program in Glasgow is teaching ten blind children, aged five to seventeen, to navigate their surroundings by making clicking sounds with their tongues and learning to hear subtle differences in returning echoes. Echo-location was pioneered in the US, where people have been able to differentiate between people, trees, buildings and parked cars by the pitch and timbre of the echo they produce. The project in Glasgow was launched following a year-long visit by Dan Kish, a 41-year-old man from California who pioneered the technique and uses it to ride a bike and even distinguish different types of fruit on trees. Source: The Scotsman, 2/10/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Lawsuit, Claims of Science Supression Accompany New Chukchi Lease Sale - A consortium of native and conservation groups has filed suit in federal district court, contending that an impending MMS lease sale in the Chukchi Sea did not adequately assess environmental impacts. The suit claims that the risk of an oil spill, along with the effects of seismic survey noise and the combined effects of energy development and global warming, all should recieve more scrutiny before leases are offered. Meanwhile, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has released emails and statements by former MMS marine mammalogist that charge the agency with changing key biological conclusions in its environmental assessments and downplaying the risks of moderate-level noise from seismic surveys. The sale proceeded as planned on February 6, and attracted record bids. Leases were offered in an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania; Annell Bay, Shell vice president of exploration for the Americas, said the lease sale was an opportunity to move into an undeveloped hydrocarbon base that could help meet an increasing demand for energy and blunt the import of petroleum. 'There's not many areas like this in the United States,' she said. Wildlife managers will review both exploration plans and development plans submitted by successful bidders. Companies were told they may have to account for polar bears if the animals are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act laws. MMS kept a coastal corridor up to 50 miles wide out of the sale; the area is used by migrating whales and subsistence hunters. Sources: Earthjustice press release, 1/31/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE] PEER press release, 2/19/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE] Forbes, 2/7/08 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Chukchi Lease Sale Set for February, Locals Seek Delay - The US Minerals Management Service has issued notice of its first oil and gas lease sale since 1991 along Alaska's northwest coast. The sale, scheduled for February 6, covers about 25 million acres, out to about 200 miles offshore. The sale area will not include near-shore waters ranging from about 25 miles to 50 miles from the coastline, which includes the near-shore area through which bowhead and beluga whales, as well as other marine mammals and marine birds, migrate north in the spring, and in which local communities subsistence hunt. North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said, “With all the changes happening out in the Chukchi Sea, I don't think we should be adding to the problem with offshore oil exploration.” It is unclear whether noise from beyond the buffer zone would affect migrating whales or other marine life in the area; the Borough has asked MMS to gather more baseline data before considering development. “You can't measure the impacts over time if you don't have a starting point,” Itta said. “That's the whole purpose of baseline data.” On Dec. 26, a consortium of local and national environmental organizations asked MMS to delay any decision on the lease sale until it considered new information contained in its letter. The lengthy document outlined issues related to summer sea ice retreat, polar bears, walrus, humpback and fin whales and gray whales, noting that substantial new information has surfaced since the federal environmental impact statement on the proposed sale was completed. MMS officials said leases issued would include stipulations to address environmental effects that may occur because of exploration and development of oil and gas. These stipulations call for protection of biological resources, including protected marine mammals and birds and methods to minimize interference with subsistence hunting and other subsistence harvesting activities. Source: Alaska Journal of Commerce, 1/13/08 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Shell May Scale Back Exploration in Beaufort - Shell Oil may cut its Beaufort Sea exploratory drilling program in half this year, using one rig instead of two. "Just as it is important to develop these resources it is important for us to build a relationship with the communities and stakeholders who have asked us to slow down and take a more measured approach," said Shell US manager John Hofmeister. In July, environmental groups and Inuit villages won an injunction against Shell in federal appeals court in San Francisco. Inuit living along the coastline fear that noise from drilling could disturb migrating bowhead whales, walruses and seals, which they depend on for food. The court is still reviewing the matter. Source: Toronto Star, 2/20/08 [READ ARTICLE]

"Mosquito" High Pitched Youth Deterent Faces Public Backlash - A nonprofit organization has named a "Children's Commissioner" and launched a campaign to ban the highly effective sonic deterent known as the "Mosquito," which disperses young people by emitting sharp, piercing sounds. The device causes discomfort to younger ears by exploiting their ability to hear very high frequencies -- a power which declines once they reach their 20s. But human rights groups say the machine infringes civil rights and creates a divide between young and old. Launching the "Buzz Off" campaign, Al Aynsley-Green said: "I have spoken to many children and young people from all over England who have been deeply affected by ultra-sonic teenage deterrents." Aynsley-Green said about 3,500 of the devices are in use across England to split up gatherings of youth in areas such as parks and shops. The controversial gadget was first used by shopkeeper Robert Gough, from South Wales. He told The Times newspaper: "Either someone has come along and wiped them off the face of the earth, or it's working." However, Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children?" Source: CNN, 2/12/08 [READ ARTICLE]

Court Forces Navy to Meet With NRDC to Limit LFAS Deployment, Again - In August, the Navy received a 5-year permit to operate its Low-Frequency Active Sonar system on two ships, nearly anywhere in the world, after several years during which its deployment was limited to a remote area of the West Pacific. This week, the same Federal Judge who ordered the earlier reduction in deployment issued a temporary restraining order calling on the Navy to keep its LFAS signals out of several sensitive marine areas worldwide, and to once again sit down with the NRDC and its allies to hammer out a mutually agreeable set of restrictions for the coming five years. Judge Elizabeth Laporte asked for a joint statement on efforts to work out a new agreement to be in her hands by February 14 (Ed. note: is that date a bit of judicious humor?). For starters, the judge added the Davidson Seamount, off Monterey, the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, the Galapagos Islands and Australia's Great Barrier Reef to the areas off-limits to routine testing of LFAS; the original permit included a few areas, mostly off the American and Canadian coast. The judge also indicated that the 12-mile exclusion area for all coastal areas may not be large enough. The order came in a lawsuit, filed by a coalition of conservation organizations led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), challenging the Navy’s proposed deployment of the LFA sonar system in over 75 percent of the world’s oceans. The lawsuit asserts that a permit issued last year by the National Marine Fisheries Service, allowing deployment of the sonar system around the world, violated a number of federal laws including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Mark Matsunaga, spokesman for the Pacific Fleet, said the Navy had opposed the injunction that Laporte ordered but is pleased that it is being allowed more leeway than under the 2002 injunction. He said the Navy has two sonar-equipped ships, both in the Western Pacific, and has been using low-frequency sonar since January 2004 "with no evidence of negative effects on marine mammals." Sources: LA Times, 2/6/08 [READ ARTICLE] San Fancisco Chronicle, 2/7/08 [READ ARTICLE] NRDC Press Release, 2/6/08 [READ PRESS RELEASE]

Federal Judge Rejects White House Exemptions for CA Sonar - The federal judge who imposed additional safety requirements on Naval mid-frequency active sonar training off the California coast has rejected the Bush administration's attempt to exempt the Navy from the laws she was enforcing. Central to this ruling is the fact that there is no "emergency" that warrents such intervention by the White House; the training missions at issue have been long planned, and can proceed, albeit with larger safety buffers and some geographic restrictions to avoid areas with higher numbers of whales. U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote that the Navy's position "produces the absurd result of permitting agencies to avoid their NEPA obligations by re-characterizing ordinary, planned activities as 'emergencies' in the interests of national security, economic stability, or other long-term policy goals. This cannot be consistent with Congressional intent," she ruled. "It is a bedrock principle of our government that neither the military nor the president is above the law," said Richard Kendall, co-counsel with NRDC in the lawsuit. "Judge Cooper has upheld that fundamental doctrine." The Navy has completed six of 14 large-scale training exercises scheduled off the coast between February 2007 and January 2009. It decided not to conduct a full environmental review before the operations, saying it already posted lookouts and took other adequate protective measures. But Cooper, in an order last August, said those measures were "woefully ineffectual and inadequate" and would leave nearly 30 species of marine mammals, including five species of protected whales, at risk of harm.

"The U.S. Navy has trained in Southern California for the past 40 years and they have had zero incidents with marine mammals - no strandings, no deaths, and no documented injuries," said Rear Adm. Larry Rice, director of the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division. "We want to keep that up," added Rice. "In order to accomplish this, we have 29 protective measures that we already employ. The additional training restrictions that the court levied on us frankly don't help us take care of the environment--and it restricts our training." (ed note: it is becoming apparent that the Navy feels strongly that it is doing enough to protect whales, and is very unresponsive to judicial decisions that it perceives as ill-advised and lacking scientific merit. What may be overlooked by the Navy and the media, is that this and other related rulings are looking at evidence of behavioral impacts that occur at lower sound levels which can still lead to physical injury; also, this and other rulings have been spurred by the Navy's decisions to not conduct full NEPA-required environmental assessments. The Navy is now in the midst of EISs for many naval training ranges, but current activities are not covered). "I don't know what it's going to take for the Navy to get it," said Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, "The courts have said over and over that the Navy must follow the law." The Navy has appealed Cooper's ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which resisted ruling on the validity of the exemptions in January, sending the case back to Cooper instead. Sources: Los Angeles Times, 2/5/08 [READ ARTICLE] Environmental News Service, 2/4/08 [READ ARTICLE] Navy News, 2/4/08 (announcing new sonar website) [READ ARTICLE] [NAVY SONAR WEBSITE]
For earlier news stories and more context: [See AEI Special Report: Active Sonars]

Latest Yellowstone Snowmobile Plan Signed, Will Take Effect Next Winter - Culminating a planning process that began in 2004 as dueling Federal Court rulings left both the Clinton and Bush plans in legal limbo, the Park Service has signed the latest Winter Use Plan for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Billings Gazette hopefully notes that: "The decision is intended to bring to a close the long-running controversy over winter recreation in Yellowstone, a dispute that has roiled for more than a decade and included several lawsuits, dizzying stacks of studies and hundreds of thousands of public comments." Indeed it may, though with snowmobile advocates still dissatisfied with the requirement that all riders be part of guided groups, and quiet use advocates pointing at measurements that show noise is audible over half the day in most popular areas, the chances of the plan being put into effect in the winter of 2008-9 remain uncertain at best. The plan allows 540 snowmobiles per day to enter the park, well over recent years' averages (depressed due to the guided tour requirement), but less than peaks of over 700 machines in previous years. Source: Billings Gazette, 11/21/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Final Yellowstone Plan Reduces Snowmobiles, But Maybe Not Noise - The permanent Winter Use Plan released last week proposes a reduction in the daily maximum number of snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone National Park, while at the same time reducing the average number of machines in each guided tour group. The end result, according to projections included with the plan, is likely to be a slight increase in the area of the park in which snowmobiles or snowcoaches can be heard. The daily maximum will be reduced from 720 snowmobiles to 540, with an average group size of 11. The new proposal, to take effect in the winter of 2008-9, "would have potentially more groups traveling through, even though it would be an overall (smaller) maximum number of machines," said Al Nash, Yellowstone spokesman. About 13% of the park would be affected by snow vehicle noise, up a percentage point from the old plan, while there may be a slight decrease in the number of hours in which vehicles are heard more than 50% of the time. However, an analysis by the Coalition of Natoinal Park Service Retirees finds that the acreage in which vehicles will be heard over half the time will triple, from 21 square miles, to 63 square miles. A few more snowcoaches will be allowed under the permanent plan (83, up from 78), with new quieter snowcoaches phased in starting next winter; all snowmobiles will need to be the slightly quieter four stroke models. Actual snowmobile numbers have been far below the maximum levels allowed (averaging under 300 per day), apparently because of snowmobilers' tendency to want to ride without being part of guided tours. Source: Billings Gazette, 9/28/07 [READ ARTICLE] Albuquerque Tribune, 10/26/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Snow Vehicle Noise Still Exceeds Yellowstone Goals - A National Park Service report on noise levels recorded in Yellowstone during last winter's recreational season confirms that snowmobile and snowcoach noise remains more omnipresent than managers desire. Snowmobiles remain the source of most noise intrusions (heard 60% more often than snow coaches), while the bus-like snowcoaches created the loudest sounds, often exceeding the maximum goal of 70dB (equivalent to a vacuum cleaner in a house). Vehicles were audible at Old Faithful 68% of the time between 8am and 4pm, and 59% of the time at Madison Junction. This most recent study was done between Dec. 20, 2006, and March 11 when, on average, 30 snowcoaches and 299 snowmobiles came into the park each day. Source: Casper Star-Tribune, 9/2/07 [READ ARTICLE] [DOWNLOAD REPORT (2.1MB pdf)]
[See AEI Special Report: Yellowstone Winter Use]

[See AEI Special Report: Travel Management Planning]

SongFinder Makes High-pitched Bird Calls Audible Again - Help is at hand for aging birders who have lost the ability to hear the higher-pitched bird calls they long enjoyed. A new device co-developed by renowned environmental sound recordist Lang Elliott transposes the now-inaudible bird calls and songs down into lower pitches, making them once again audible. The unit, dubbed the SongFinder, is designed to be worn in the field, and uses headphones and stereo imaging to allow birders to track birds in three dimensions, just as they are used to. Source: NatureSound website [WEBSITE]

90 Degrees South - New York-based sound artist Andrea Polli, whose work often centers around natural systems, is in Antarctica for much of December and January. She is posting regularly, with short notes and many sound files: some field recordings, many intereviews with scientists about their work, and about listening. The sound files take a little while to load, but it's worth the patience (let the page load while you read the posts or do something else); once loaded, you can click to listen on the page, or download the MP3s to listen at your leisure. [WEBSITE]

Listening to Birds - A two-year anthropological study based at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) is exploring the relationships that people have with bird songs and calls. The project's blog is off to a dynamic start, with many interesting posts, and they are actively soliciting contributions from anyone, worldwide. [WEBSITE] [BLOG]