CONTENTION 1 : INHERENCY
THE US NAVY HAS BEEN GRANTED THE ABILITY TO TEST LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE SONAR OR LFAS WHICH HAS PROVEN TO KILL MARINE ANIMALS, AND PENDING LITIGATION WILL INITAT A FULL DEPLOYMENT AFFECTING 75% OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS
Lauren Linden, http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/cda/article/print/0%2C1674%2C87~11268~733805%2C00.html, May 16, 2003, “Navy Exempted From Sonar Limits”
Around the globe, nations are testing and beginning to deploy "active marine mammals. It has been conclusively linked to the deaths of seven whales in sonar" technology, which uses extremely loud sound to detect submarines. The problem? Active sonar can injure and even kill marine animals the Bahamas in March 2000; that stranding is only one of a mounting number of similar events.
The U.S. Navy has led the push toward use of active sonar. In full knowledge of the disastrous effects that active sonar's intense noise may have on whale populations all over the world, the Navy has also conducted testing in complete secrecy and has consistently evaded and violated environmental law.
In July 2002, despite strong concerns from many leading scientists, the Bush administration issued a long-sought permit allowing the Navy to use the biggest gun in its active-sonar arsenal, the SURTASS LFA system, in as much as 75 percent of the world's oceans. NRDC filed a lawsuit to stop deployment of the system, and in October 2002 won a preliminary injunction against broad deployment of the LFA system. The judge held that the administration's permit to deploy LFA likely violates a number of federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. The judge also agreed that the science clearly demonstrates "the possibility, indeed probability, of irreparable injury" to marine mammals should LFA sonar be deployed widely.
NRDC litigators will soon face off with the Bush administration in federal court to determine whether this dangerous technology is finally unleashed upon entire populations of whales and other marine mammals -- or whether it should be permanently blocked until the Navy obeys the law and demonstrates that LFA will not cause serious harm to ocean life.























CONTENTION 2 : ADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGE 1 : WHALES

1. LFA SONAR THREATENS THE SURVIVAL OF AN ENTIRE POPULATION OF WHALES WITH IT’S FIRST DEPLOYMENT
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society , http://www.seashepherd.org/media_info2.asp?ID=26 06/13/03
Scientists are warning that LFA sonar may threaten the very survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering on the brink of extinction. At close range, the system's shock waves are so intense they can destroy a whale's eardrums, cause its lungs to hemorrhage, and even kill.
Further away, LFA noise can cause permanent hearing loss in marine mammals after a single transmission. At 40 miles away, LFA noise is still so intense it can disrupt the mating, feeding, nursing and other essential activities of marine mammals.

2. EVEN IF THE AFFECTED WHALES ARE NOT KILLED IMMEDIATELY ALL ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS ARE STRIPPED AND EXTINCTION IS INEVITABLE. ‘
CNN, ww.cnn.com/NATURE/9906/30/sea.noisepart1 6/30/99
Repeated exposure to moderately loud sounds can damage human ears, as rock musicians have learned.
Even milder sounds can be annoying, stressful, distracting (picture the golfer about to swing) or confusing.
Some sounds attract whales toward boats, making them more vulnerable to collision. Sometimes whales fall silent. Sperm and pilot whales stopped "singing" (using their active sonar) altogether during a 220 decibel test in 1991, some of them for days, which meant they were not eating during that time. Whales may fall silent to hide from their sharp-eared predators (killer whales, or orcas). Because silence evolved as their survival response, they hush at any strange noise. When they're not using their active sonar, whales are not courting potential mates, and they may not be finding food. Deep-water whales, the kind with teeth, are thought to use echolocation (active sonar) for navigation and hunting. Sounds booming at regular intervals also could interfere with whales' sleep. Little is known about how whales and dolphins sleep, except that they must surface to breathe. "In humans, prolonged or repeated noises can cause difficulties in falling asleep, changes in sleep patterns, and awakenings," says the often-cited book "Marine Mammals and Noise" by W. John Richardson et al. Chronic noise may lead to high blood pressure in humans, and strong noise can affect reproduction and rearing of young in land animals, Richardson's book adds. Repeated stress can take a toll on an animal's immune system, leaving it more vulnerable to parasites and other infections.

3. THE PROTECTION OF A WHALES RIGHT TO LIVE IS THE FORMOST
GOAL, PLAN IS A FIRST STEP IN THE BREAKDOWN OF ANTHRO - AND
ANDRO – CENTRISM <>
Anthomy D’Amatao, AJIL board of editors AND Sudhir K. Chopraattorney for the US EPA in Dalls 1/91. American Journal of International Law, lexis
Those who would deny whales the right to live use a similar rationalization. To be sure, whales are not human, but are they "less" than human? The mind set that exults in the killing of whales and the "sports" hunting of endangered wildlife species overlaps with the mind set that accepts genocide of "inferior" human beings. Conversely, the extension of rights to whales resonates deeply with the historical-legal extensions of equal rights to women and to minority groups. We believe that the phrase "human rights" is only superficially species chauvinistic. [FN33] In a profound sense, whales and some other sentient mammals are entitled to human rights or at least to humanist rights-- to the most fundamental entitlements that we regard as part of the humanitarian tradition. They are entitled to those fundamental rights not because they are "less" than human but because they are "different" from humans in various respects that do not affect or qualify the rights in question. In this article we argue only for extending the single most fundamental of all human rights-- the right to life--to whales. [FN34]

ADVANTAGE 2 : PLANKTON
1. PLANKTON ARE THE UNNOTICED VICTIMS OF LFAS
Cheryl A. Magill, RESEARCH PROJECT WITH THE HEARTLINK, EKG to EEG to Dolphin Harmonics.., http://www.zayra.de/soulcom/dolphin/, 1998
- Perhaps it is no coincidence that Hawaii newspapers were filled with
concern this year about the dramatically reduced fish resources and turtle
populations in Hawaiian waters as well as concerns about coral beds
following the sonar tests conducted in the winter of 1998. Since sonar is
capable of tissue shearing and lung explosion of the larger mammals, it
certainly would cause the death of smaller marine life and fish or even plankton and coral which are not even being considered or studied during this controversy.

2. SOUND EFFECTS ON PLANKTON MEAN END OF ALL OCEAN LIFE AND DESTROYS BIODIVERSITY.
Gretel H. Schueller, 2001 Environment Hawai`i, Inc. Volume 12 Number 2 (August 2001)
As the NMFS works on its rulings, opponents are assembling a battle plan. "We're trying to find studies on the effects of sound on ocean life," explains Green. "If we can show that that kind of sound level affects endangered species, under the Endangered Species Act you can't do it." Green is also looking at effects on some of the ocean's smallest inhabitants: plankton. Plankton are "the bottom of the food chain," she says. "If plankton are affected, everything goes in the ocean."


3. LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY MEANS EXTINCTION
The Ocean Channel http://www.ocean.com/Conservation/OceanPollution.asp 2001
Ocean pollution is a problem that directly affects sea life. It indirectly affects human health. Healthy oceans are vital to sustaining all life on Earth. Covering approximately 75% of the earth's surface, our oceans provide food, natural resources, recreation and precious life-saving medicines for many people. Care of the oceans protects the survival of not only land dwellers, but also maintains the well being and biodiversity of the inhabitants of the ocean as well. Sustaining and preserving the ocean's unique organisms and habitats protects all life on earth for future generations.







4. PLANKTON ARE A KEY NEGATIVE FEEDBACK TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING

By the BBC's John Duce BBC News Online September 20, 2000
Scientists in Germany believe that two species of plankton found in massive quantities in the world's oceans may be able to counteract global warming. The marine organisms are capable of absorbing the equivalent amount of carbon emissions to those produced by a large country like Germany over several years, the research suggests. ... In a new report in the journal Nature, they also warn that the carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere could be having a major effect on the oceans' fragile ecosystem. Carbon sink As one of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide acts like a blanket, trapping heat and increasing the temperature on the Earth's surface. Scientists have long known that the world's oceans take up much of the carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, have found that two common types of ocean plankton appear to absorb high amounts of the gas. The tiny marine plants and animals may take up more carbon dioxide when atmospheric concentrations increase, potentially offering a negative biological feedback against global warming.


5.GLOBAL WARMING IS THE END OF THE WORLD
John Leslie 1996 (Prof Emeritus of Philosophy @ U of Guelph & Fellow @ Royal Society of Canada.) The End of the World
The most serious greenhouse danger could be of runaway positive feedback. Here we have the horrid example of Venus. Primitive life may perhaps actually have evolved there but now a dense atmosphere, almost all of it CO2 gives greenhouse temperatures of around 450 degrees C. Whereas a level of 0.5 per cent new non – linear effects come into play and the heating greatly increases, Lovelock points out : for a start, water vapour accumulates markedly. ‘Earth’, he continues, ‘would then heat up rapidly to a temperature near to that of boiling water.’ Notice that to achieve disaster one doesn’t in fact need 1 per cent of CO2. It is enough if the newly enhanced effect of the greehouse gases, take together, equals that of 1 percent of CO2. Scenarios with strong positive feedback are easily constructed. For instance, S.H>Scheider writes : Rapid change in climate could disrupt forests and other ecosystems reducing their ability ot draw carbon dioxide down from the atmosphere. Moreover, climatic warming could lead to rapid release of the vast amont of carbon held in the soil as dead organic matter. This stock of carbon – at least twice as much as is stored in the atmosphere – is continuously being decomposed into carbon dioxide and methane by the action of soil microbes. A warmer climate might speed their work, releasing additional carbon dioxide (From dry soils) and methane from rice paddies, landfills and wetlands) that would enhance the warming. Large quantities of methane are also locked up in the continental – shelf sediments and below arctic permafrost in the form of clathrates – molecular lattices of methane and water. Warming of shallow water of the ocean and melting of the permafrost could release some of the methane. There are over ten trillion tons of it, its carbon content thus being greater than that of all known fossil fuel desposits ; but in methane, chemical formula CH4, the carbon is considerable more threatening than in fuel burned to form CO2. Remember, methane is a greehouse gas thirty times more effective than CO2 molecule for molecule.






6. PLANKTON PRODUCE 90% OF THE PLANETS OXYGEN, A THREAT TO IT’S SURVIVAL MEANS THE PLANET LITERALLY SUFFOCATES TO DEATH.
1999 Zhan Huan Zhou, Fall 1999, Issue 4
One of the greatest examples of environmental ignorance is with the Brazilian rainforests. Perhaps the catchiest phrase and definitely the most meaningless to come out of the rainforest movement is that they are "the lungs of the earth." Yet more poppycrock! Dr. Sherwood B. Idso, a research physicist with the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, contends that the world's plant and animal life would not suffer from a lack of oxygen even if the rainforests were to be completely eliminated. This is because the main source of oxygen in the earth is the ocean, not the rainforests. Microscopic plankton in the ocean produces over 90% of the oxygen by means of photosynthesis. Instead of saving the trees, why isn't there a campaign to save the plankton?










































ADVANTAGE 3 : SEALS

1. LFA ENDANGERS SEALS
Human Society of the United States http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:GWgxWPD1d1gJ:files.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/LFA3_comments.pdf+LFA,+sonar,+seals&hl=en&lr=lang_zh-CN|lang_en&ie=UTF-8, 1998
This table indicates that several phocid species produce sounds and/or can hear within the frequency range of LFA sonar. Elephant seals in particular, because they are pelagic and deep – diving (and cryptic at the surface), may be most at risk form exposure to LFA sonar.


2. ALMOST ALL SPECIES OF SEALS WOULD BE DIRECTLY AFFECTED DUE TO GEOGRAPHIC PLACEMENT
[Federal Register: October 22, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 204)]
[Proposed Rules][Page 57026-57029]From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov][DOCID:fr22oc99-24] DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Part 216 The odontocetes (toothed whales) that may be affected because they inhabit the deeper, offshore waters where SURTASS LFA sonar might operate include both the pelagic (oceanic) whales and dolphins and those coastal species that also occur in deep water including Stenella spp., Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus), rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), Fraser's dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei), right-whale dolphin (Lissodelphis spp.), Lagenorhynchus spp., Cephalorhynchus spp., bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), common dolphin (Delphinus
delphis), Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli), melon-headed whale (Peponocephala spp.), beaked whales (Berardius spp., Hyperoodon spp., Mesoplodon spp., Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), Shepard's
beaked whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi), Longman's beaked whale (Indopacetus pacificus), killer whale (Orcinus orca), false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens), pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata),
sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus, Kogia spp.), and pilot whale (Globicephala spp.).
Potentially affected pinnipeds include: 8 phocid (true seal) species including, the Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus spp.), harbor seals (Phoca spp), and elephant seals (Mirounga spp.); 8 species of fur seals (Arctocephalus spp., Callorhinus ursinus); and 5 species of sea lions, including the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) and California sea lion (Zalophus californianus).

3. SEALS ARE KEY TO BIODIVERSITY
SeaWeb : Ocean Update http://www.seaweb.org/resources/12update/decline.html Nov. 1997
Declines in seals and seabirds result in reduction of biodiversity Concern has long been expressed about the direct impacts on marine wildlife species of such threats as hunting, or predation by introduced species. Now, a recent paper in Biodiversity and Conservation has underlined the serious effects for other components of coastal ecosystems when such species are removed or decline. Specifically, the paper suggests that declines in six species of coastal New Zealand plants are associated with the hunting and predation of seals and seabirds.






4. A DECLINE IN SEALS TRADES OF WITH ORCA PREDITATION, LESS SEALS MEANS OCRAS OVERPREY THE OTTER POPULATION WHICH ENDS BIODVERSITY
McGraw Hill Companies http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/es_map/articles/article_28.mhtml , Feb 1999
The more complete explanation of the orcas' sudden interest in otters appears to be overfishing by humans. Orcas normally subsist on seals and sea lions, whose rich body fat is an excellent energy source for the whales. Seals, in turn, need oil-rich fish such as salmon and herring to survive in the cold northern waters, but these fish are also prized by humans, and their populations have dropped as a result of improving fishing technology and strong world markets for fish. Fish catches both near shore and off-shore have climbed steadily in recent decades, even as fish numbers have fallen. With the depletion of oil-rich fish stocks, less fatty fish, chiefly pollock, appear to have moved into the coastal waters of Alaska, but pollock apparently provide a meagre food source for seals and sea lions. Their numbers have dropped precipitously in recent years. In the absence of enough seals and sea lions, ecologists believe, orcas have found that sea otters, which can be about 4 feet long and weigh as much as 50 pounds, make good prey.
But sea otters play an important role in their ecological community. They subsist principally on sea urchins, which live on the sea floor and graze on kelp. Kelp is a large vine-like algae that grows to great heights, in kelp "forests" that shelter a complex ecosystem of fish, sea lions, sea birds, and of course the otters themselves. When otter numbers fall, sea urchin populations explode, and their grazing can destroy the kelp forest on which so many species depend. Marine biologists worry that orcas' new appetite for otters will lead to the dissolution of the complex ecological system that supports a wide range of marine mammals, fish, and birds.































ADVANTAGE 4 : FISH

1. FISH POPULATOINS AR E DECREASING NOW MORE THEN EVER THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY IS IN DANGER
Jim Lehrer, News Anchor, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec01/fishing.html, August 15, 2002

People around the world eat more fish than any other type of animal protein. Fish have been around for over 400 million years, and never before has their existence been threatened as much as it is today.Soon, you may not be able to get your favorite fish at restaurants or supermarkets, and fish are becoming more expensive than ever before. Why? There are too many fishermen in the world, and not enough fish.


2. LFA SONAR IS A DANGER TO ANY MARINE FISH SPECIFICALLY GAME FISH LIKE SALMON.

James R. Chambers, Principal Chambers and Associates http://www.chambers-associates.org/Big-Marine-Fish/sonar_notice.html, 20002

The U.S. Navy has developed an extremely powerful (low frequency) sonar to detect "quiet" submarines, and it has applied for a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to deploy it. However, based on newly available scientific information, we know that this low frequency sonar emits a shock wave that at 150 to 160 decibels can kill whales, other marine mammals and marine fish by rupturing the membranes surrounding their lungs, swim bladder, brain and auditory air spaces. The second lethal effect of the shock wave involves the activation of supersaturated gas in marine animals' blood and in their cells to form small bubbles which, like the "bends" can block the flow of blood to the brain (causing stroke) and can rupture the cell walls. This effect will be greatest in deep-diving animals (such as bluefin tuna, swordfish, bigeye tuna and deep-diving whales) that will have the highest levels of supersaturated gasses in their blood and cells. The source level of this sonar is 240 decibels (equivalent to the intensity of a Saturn rocket). But, because low frequency underwater sound can travel hundreds of miles with little loss of power, it will actually create a "kill zone" several hundred miles in diameter. NATO naval exercises using low frequency sonar conducted off Greece in 1996 killed whales that were more than 100 km away. In the final EIS for its sonar system, the Navy admits that an intensity of 160 decibels (a lethal level) will be felt several hundred miles away from the source. This will create a "Kill Zone" the size of Texas. The Navy says it wants to deploy this sonar in 80% of the world's oceans (omitting only the Arctic and Antarctic). It has already been, or is to be used in many areas that are prime habitat of marlin, swordfish, salmon, bluefin tuna, mako sharks, bigeye tuna, sailfish, spearfish, wahoo, yellowfin tuna and many other premiere game fish (and their prey species).










3. AS A VITAL KEYSTONE, SALMON POPULATIONS ARE CRITICAL TO THE HEALTH OF ENTIRE ENVIRONMENT – SPECES DEPLETION RISKS A OTAL ECOSYSTEM COLLAPSE
Ed Hunt, Environment News Service, July 6, 200 pg. Onling (“Ecosystem Keyston : Salmon Support 137 Other Species” http://www.blufish.org/keyson.html)

OLYMPIA, Washington,(ENS) -More than 137 species of fish and wildlife - from orcas to caddisflies - depend on the Northwest salmon for their survival, a revel ation that makes salmon recovery efforts of far greater importance than the protection of a single species. A new report released by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has found that salmon play a vital role in watershed health, transporting nutrients from the ocean back to the watershed. The discovery could spark major changes in fishery and hatchery management and the direction of salmon recovery efforts in the future. "It's not just salmon, it's the ecosystem," said Jeff Cederholm, a salmon research scientist with Washington Department of Natural Resources, principal author of the report. "We need to start giving out the whole story of what made the ecosystem; it's an abundance of fish on the spawning grounds." Orcas, also known as killer whales, rely on salmon for their food Northwest species now struggling because of depleted salmon runs include the bald eagle, grizzly bear, black bear, osprey, harlequin duck, Caspian tern and river otter. "They are all so closely tuned with the pacific salmon that many of these populations are in decline, partially due to declining food supply," Cederholm said. The report, "Pacific Salmon and Wildlife," is a collaboration of a number of organizations through Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department of Natural Resources. It brings together 500 scientific studies and decades of research to document the vital role salmon play in the overall health of ecosystems. Pacific salmon are unique in that they die after they reproduce. When salmon return from the ocean, they bring vital nutrients with them to the watersheds where they were hatched. Through their decomposing carcasses, the salmon spawning process offers a vital source of food not just for salmon and other fish species, but for a whole host of organisms in the watershed.
Prior research has documented that salmon rely on the decomposing salmon carcasses as a major food source. National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Robert Bilby found that 40 to 60 percent of the stomach contents of young salmon and steelhead could be traced to salmon carcasses. When salmon carcasses were placed in streams, the density of young coho salmon in those streams increased compared to other sites. The weight and amount of fat found in the coho increased wherever the carcasses were put in the river. The healthier and better fed salmon are before they leave their home watershed, the better chance they have of returning to spawn. Earlier this year, researchers calculated that due to declining salmon runs, just five to seven percent of the nutrients originally delivered by salmon to streams is now available. The streams are starving from lack of salmon, and that lack of salmon is hurting the ability of the next generation of salmon to survive. Cederholm, who has been studying the link between salmon nutrients and ecosystem health for more than a decade, said he thinks the salmon life cycle evolved as a "primitive form of childcare." By going out into the ocean, feeding and storing nutrients, then returning to their stream of origin to spawn and die enriches the habitat, giving the young salmon a better chance for survival. "They achieved total ecosystem enrichment," Cederholm says. "Salmon really are a keystone species. ... For example, the reestablishment of the grizzly bear may be impeded by not having the primary food source it evolved with. The abundance of all these things is interrelated." Of the 137 species documented as dependent on salmon, 41 are mammals including orcas, bears and river otters, 89 are birds, including bald eagles, Caspian terns and grebes, five are reptiles and two are amphibians. "Production is based on food and space and you must have both," Cederholm said. "Pacific salmon are the food base for much of what lives in the watershed."
Bald eagles depend on salmon for food When the salmon disappear, their importance becomes evident. Cederholm points to the example of McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park. In 1981, more than 600 bald eagles gathered to feed on kokanee salmon carcasses. When an non-native shrimp was introduced in an adjacent lake, the shrimp competed with the salmon for an important food source - zooplankton - and the salmon run failed. By 1989, only 25 eagles were found at McDonald Creek. The loss of salmon caused what Cederholm calls an "ecosystem collapse." "We think we see one little change," said Cederholm. "But behind it, it's the whole ecosystem." The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been placing hatchery salmon carcasses in streams to try and restore some of the lost nutrients. Andy Appleby, aquaculture coordinator for the hatchery division of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the state distributed 120,000 carcasses in 23 watersheds last year as part of the state's nutrient enhancement program. Now entering its fifth year, the nutrient enhancement program has doubled every year, Appleby said, and there are plans to continue expanding the program. Oregon also has a smaller, but growing carcass distribution program. Cederholm says the nutrient enhancement program is a good stopgap measure to get much needed nutrients back into the streams, but it is a far cry from what is needed to restore streams to their historically nutrient rich state. Historically, salmon carcasses likely totaled three to five tons, for every kilometer of stream every year, Cederholm said. "Anything that gets marine derived nutrients on the spawning ground must happen right now to give wild fish a boost." Cederholm thinks change must occur in how salmon harvesting is managed.Todays salmon harvests are based on a system called Maximum Sustained Yield under which the number of fish allowed to spawn is based on generating the greatest number of harvestable fish. The report says managing using this measure drastically reduces the number of fish that should be reaching the watershed to spawn, and the nutrients in the stream, creating a spiral of lost production.
New harvest strategies need to be developed that address the nutrient delivery to freshwater ecosystems, yet there is little information available on which to base these harvest levels. Sport and commerical fishing have already been cut back to return more fish to the spawning grounds. Yet, Cederholm says in the short term, drastic measures need to be taken to make sure all wild fish get to their spawning streams.
"We are very much in an emergency situation," Cederholm said. "So I have this personal view that we must stop killing these wild fish, we must stop impeding their progress to the spawning grounds. If Gresh is right, if we are returning just five percent of these nutrients to the spawning ground, we must rebuild those runs. The wild fish that are left are the nucleus to start from."


4. ANY FURTHER LOSS OF FISH POPULATION MEANS COLAPSE OF THE fishing industry INDUSTRY
Reuters News Service, http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19006/story.htm, Dec 12, 2002

"The next effect of overfishing will be the collapse of fish stocks and the end of the fishing industry," Cripps said. "Tens of thousands of European fishermen have already lost their jobs as fishing becomes increasingly unviable. It will only get worse if stocks are fished to commercial extinction," he said. "The future of the fishing industry depends on there being fish to catch."



5. FISHING INDUSTRY PROVIDES BILLIONS DOLLARS AND THOUSANDS OF JOBS TO THE US ECONOMY
Institute for Fisheries Resources, ww.pcffa.org 2/22 /03
PCFFA is involved and fighting for fishermen everywhere on a wide variety IUof regional and national habitat protection issues. More than 75% of this nation's entire $152 billion/year fishing industry depends upon the health of this nation's inshore or nearshore environment. These are the nursery grounds for the vast majority of all the species of fish and shellfish caught in US waters. Without clean water, healthy watersheds, biologically productive estuaries and wetlands, and unpolluted oceans, most of this nation's fishing jobs would utterly disappear!
As it is, habitat losses to date already cost our industry an estimated $27 billion/year -- enough to support 450,000 family wage jobs. The west coast salmon fishing industry (including both commercial and recreational components) has already lost an estimated 72,000 salmon-produced family wage jobs over the last 20 years. These losses are directly related to widespread inland habitat destruction and mismanagement of federal hydropower and irrigation dams. According to the American Fisheries Society, more than 106 major salmon runs in northern California and the Pacific Northwest are already extinct and another 214 are at risk of extinction in the near future. Current estimates are that unless northern California and Northwest land use practices change substantially, that eventually Pacific salmon will all but disappear from the lower 48 states -- just like Atlantic salmon have already disappeared from the east coast.
Commercial fishermen therefore must fight to protect wetlands, estuaries, old-growth salmon-producing forests and healthy river ecosystems. We must fight for abundant clean water and pristine oceans. As commercial fishermen, we must always fight for our right to exist. If we do not, our industry will be gradually strangled to death and snuffed out, for if we do not speak for the fish -- who will?
As the largest representative of west coast commercial fishermen, PCFFA has never been shy about taking on these problems. We lead the charge to put a stop to west coast oil drilling in prime fishing grounds. We were key players in passing major water reform legislation for the Central Valley Project (the "Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992"). PCFFA played a key role in improving private land forestry and grazing practices in both California and Oregon, and on all west coast federal lands. We are fighting in Congress almost daily for better fisheries habitat protection all across this nation and in every coastal state.
PCFFA's habitat protection program is now expanding and being carried on by its sister organization, the Institute for Fisheries Resources. Please jump to IFR's Home Page for more information on our efforts on behalf of the men and women of the commercial fishing fleet to protect fish habitat throughout the country.





6. CONTINUED GROWTH IS KEY TO CONTINUED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Bjorn Lomborg, director of Denmark's national Environmental Assessment Institute and associate professor of statistics in the Department of Politital Science at the University of Aarhus, 2001, The Skeptical Environmentalist, p. 32-33.
In general we need to confront our myth of the economy undercutting the environment. We have grown to believe that we are faced with an inescapable choice between higher economic welfare and a greener environment. But surprisingly and as will be documented throughout this book, environmental development often stems from economic development - only when we get sufficiently rich can we afford the relative luxury of caring about the environment. On its most general level, this conclusion is evident in Figure 9, where higher income in general is correlated with higher environmental sustainability.



PLANS

( ___ ) THUS WE PRESENT THE FOLLOWING PLAN, THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ISSUE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER BANNING THE USE OF LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE SONAR BY UNITED STATES MILITARY FORCES.

( ____) THUS WE PRESENT THE FOLLOWING PLAN, THE UNITED STATUS SUPREME COURT SHOULD RULE UNDER THE MARINE MAMMALS PROTECTION ACT THAT LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE SONAR IS ILLEGAL AND BAN ALL USE.


(____ )THUS WE PRESENT THE FOLLOWING PLAN, THE UNDERSECRETARY OF THE NAVY SHOULD ISSUE AN ORDER TO END ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE USE OF LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE SONAR.

CONTENTION 3 : SOLVENCY

1. THE THREAT OF ‘SILENT SUBS’ IS CONSTRUCTED SUB TECHNOLOGY HAS DEGRADED AND EVEN THE NAVY ADMITS IT.
Stephanie Siegel, http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9907/02/sea.noise.part3/index.html, July 2, 1999, “Does the Navy Need LFAS?”
A U.S. district judge in Hawaii, dismissing environmentalists' request to stop LFAS testing last year, said the Navy needs to develop its future antisubmarine technology.
Not everyone agrees that there is such a need or that LFAS is the way to go. A contractor warned in a trade magazine article that active sonar would reveal its source, drawing enemy fire.
U.S. Sen. Russell D. Feingold, arguing in January in Congress against a different low-frequency Navy system, ELF, said no enemy submarines threaten the United States. "The submarine capabilities of our potential adversaries have noticeably deteriorated or remain far behind those of our Navy."
The Navy doesn't claim the United States is under threat of a sub attack. The EIS team LFAS Web site shows shipping channels around the world where submarines "could be used in the future to disrupt peace and stability by interrupting transportation and commerce, thus impacting the world economy."



2. LFAS IS OBSOLETE , AND MORE THAN UNLESS IN THE CURRENT TECHNOLGOCAL CLIMATE
http://csiwhalesalive.org/csi01104.html Whales Alive! - Vol. X No. 1 - January 2001
Meanwhile scuttlebutt has increasing numbers of Navy people declaring the LFA already obsolete, with the Navy creating a new class of submarines equipped with passive arrays that would do the job of the LFA, but without telltale noise, and a class of destroyer with an LFA derivative. The latter would multiply the noise problem several times. Other nations are developing LFA clones, and most importantly, the countermeasures to deter LFA effectiveness. We are left with a noisy boondoggle pushed by a contractor, a story similar to so many wasteful military programs.

















3. THE NAVY HAS OVER 10 ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE SONARS THAT ARE IN USE OR IN DEVELOPMENT THAT COULD REPLACE LFAS
Prepared for the Ocean Mammal Institute by Robert W. Rand, INCE Contact Marsha L. Green, PhD, at mgreen@alb.edu or Ocean Mammal Institute at www.oceanmammalinst.org 2002
Safe Alternatives to Active Sonar That Are In Use or Development by the US Navy Now 1. Passive Sonar In warfare, passive sonar has the advantage of not betraying the presence of the listener. • IUSS (Integrated Undersea Surveillance System) –FSS (Fixed Surveillance System). –FDS (Fixed Distributed System). –ADS (Advanced Deployable System). These are passive sensor systems, either stationary or dropped quickly in tactical locations, with real-time digital data links into military command/control networks. • Multi-Line Array Systems –SURTASS Twin-Line: Twin towed array lines resolving contact direction and –improving resolution. “Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) Twin Line operations in 1998 and 1999 demonstrated the ability to detect advanced diesel submarines at substantial ranges in the littoral environment where contact was previously thought to be ‘unobtainable’ by the operational commander.” —Statement of RADM Malcom I Fages, US Navy Director, Submarine Warfare Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and RADM JP Davis, US Navy Program Executive Office for Submarines, before the House Armed Services Committee Military Procurement Subcommittee on Submarine Force Structure and Modernization 27 June 2000. –VLA (Vertical Line Arrays): Stationary multiple array lines achieving significant –gains in resolution and signal-to-noise. –TB-29 submarine-towed (twin, triple): Multiple towed lines at depth resolve contact –solutions dynamically. –Sonobuoy Arrays in real-time radio linked networks. • RPS (Robust Passive Sonar) • DARPA-funded program achieving increased sonar performance by a factor of 10 using: –Multiple sensor arrays. –Advanced Signal Processing –AMFP (Adaptive Match Field Processing): Santa Barbara Channel Experiment, –year 2000. –RR-AMFP: Rank Reduction Processing improves AMFP signal-to-noise ratios an –order of magnitude. • A-RCI and other Advanced Signal Processing • Increased sonar systems processing power using: –COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) Hardware components. –Advanced Signal Processing Software components. 2. Non-acoustic Sensors • Magnetic: Silently detects temporal magnetic anomalies such as submarine hulls. • Limited range. • Satellite imaging: Satellite imaging analysis reveals submarine trails and water • disturbances. Limited use. 3. Integrated Sensory Networks • Advanced correlative processing of complementary sensor systems. • GCI: Geologic Clutter Initiative: digitally characterize the littoral landscape • to improve sonar operations.




















4. NAVAL DEMANDS FOR LFAS ARE FLAWED, BIASED, AND INNACURATE – 5 REASONS
Lannny Sinkin, Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Navy Operations of Survellance Towed Array Sensor System, May 31, 2001 pg. Online. (http://manyrooms.com/commentslanny.htm)
There are at least five concerns regarding the adequacy and objectivity of the research relied upon by the Navy to support deployment of SURTASS LFA.
The first is the large data gaps that exist. On the issue of auditory responses of marine mammals and other marine life to LFA or any other sound, there are essentially more gaps than data. See e.g. SACLANTCEN Bioacoustics Panel, La Spezia, Italy, 15-17 June 1998 at 2-66, 67.
Second, the Navy attempts to replace a larger body of research with the very limited research conducted by the Low Frequency Sonar Scientific Research Program (LFS SRP). See e.g. OEIS/EIS at 4.2-2, 4.2-25.
Third, the conditions in the ocean are undergoing significant, and even radical, change. The Earth’s environment is under extraordinary stress from human activity. The oceans are no exception. Fisheries are collapsing from excessive harvesting. Ecosystems are collapsing from pollution. Global warming is changing the oceans and threatening the food chain. None of these stresses are considered in the EIS for deployment of SURTASS LFA. To the contrary, the absence of any consideration implicitly implies that the oceans are as vital and healthy as they have been in the not too distant past. Assuming a steady state condition, rather than an increasingly stressed condition, for the ocean environment fails to provide a comprehensive context for environmental analysis.
There is also the environmental damage being inflicted on land by overpopulation and other factors. As the impacts of environmental degradation increase on land, those impacts can be expected to spill over into the oceans. "At Mayor Jeremy Harris’ second Mayor’s Asia-Pacific Environmental Summit yesterday, one leader after another confessed to struggling to reverse environmental collapse." Environmental concerns span Asia-Pacific region, Honolulu Advertiser, May 5, 2001 at p. B1.
Fourth, the Navy has a vested interest in supplanting research that does not support deployment because the Navy invested more than $350 million in preparing to deploy SURTASS LFA. As a United States Senator observed: "[T]he U.S. Navy has spent more than $300 million to develop [SURTASS LFA] since 1989. So this is far more than a casual interest to the U.S. Navy." Letter dated May 7, 2001 from Senator Daniel Inouye to Mr. Lanny Sinkin.
Fifth, much of the available funding to conduct research in this area comes from the Navy, calling into question the independence of researchers seeking such funding. "The increasing reliance of the U.S. marine mammal research community on U.S. Navy funding appears to be effectively restricting academic freedom." Marine Mammal Science, the U.S. Navy, and Academic Freedom by Hal Whitehead and Linda Weilgart, Marine Mammal Science, 11(2):260-263 (April 1995) at 260.

- Mike, 7:22 PM