Discuss the Supreme Court's ruling on Navy sonar use

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling will allow the Navy to use high-powered sonar off the SoCal coast, despite protests from environmentalists who say the sonar harms whales and other marine mammals.

The Times' David Savage reports:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts said the Navy needs to train its crews to detect enemy submarines, and it cannot be forced to turn off its sonar when whales are spotted nearby. "The public interest in conducting training exercises with active sonar under realistic conditions plainly outweighs" the concerns voiced by environmentalists, he said for a 5-4 majority.

Do you agree with the Supreme Court ruling?  Do the Navy's needs trump the potential effects on marine life?  Weigh in here.

Photo: Dennis Fujimoto/AP

Comments

[Rick K]

Not only yes, but HELL yes. How can the military be expected to provide thier mandated national safety if the invironmentalists won't let them use the technology?

[dan dye]

This ruling makes me sick. We just can't seem to get it: everything, our entire eco-system, is interconnected. All man does is poison and disrupt the natural harmony of the planet. And the planet will swat us off its face like a irritating gnat one day in return. Wake up! I say dismantle the Navy and honor the whales.

[No Terrorists]

Since we don't eat whales or use their oil anymore what do we need them for? What we DO need is the Navy protecting our children from the terrorists. Thank God the supreme court can see through the tree huggers BS and keeps us safe!

[mitch]

I disagree. I believe that there should be a higher standard that Roberts applied when it comes to harming fellow mammals who are endangered by man's activities.

[Roy from Atwater Village]

I think the 5 justices that voted for this should be subjected to active sonar and see how they like it. This is typical of our "nothing else matters but us" attitude. If we continue on the current course, nothing else but us will be left in the world and then the human race will vanish along with everything else we destroyed/killed off first...

[Tracy Cermack]

I'm disgusted by this ruling! Just another case where we think human life is so much more important than all other life on the planet. And it's not even human life we're talking about here ... only the SAFETY (or, rather, the impression of safety) of humans? We should be ashamed of ourselves! And the 5 Supremes who voted this way should be made to watch, in person, whales being subjected to this torture.

[Pat McQ]

Enemy Submarines? Who's... Al Qaeda's?

[cyp]

The U.S. is an amazing country. We fuss and stew about the killing of whales by other countries. We fuss and stew about the declining state of the world's environment, about global warming, about declining resources, about endangered species...then we proceed to use sonar (with blatant disregard for the consequences) in the path of migrating whales. Give me a break!

Why is it that we Americans have so little respect for our natural world?

[lockjaw]

I totally disagree. Justice Roberts needs to retire. We need to clean out the Supreme Court and replace it with people who can see the big picture, not just the politics.

[dogmatic]

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM TERRORISTS! WHO CARES IF THE CHILDREN DON'T EVER GET TO SEE WHALES OR BLUE SKIES OR THE OCEAN FOR THAT MATTER! KILL EVERYTHING AND PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!!!

[Jay Cross]

Yes, I do - as long as the whales can start trying to sink the submarines. It's their ocean, we just get to visit once in a while.

[AJ Watts]

Hooray for the justices who ruled for the US Navy! The Navy is mandated to protect the US from it enemies. I ask all of the naysayers which is more important and which would you choose in a life or death situation....a whale or or child or a grand-child (or another close relative)?

[Joseph Callery]

As a former Sonar Technician Submarine First Class (STS1/SS), I spent three and a half years of my life underwater as a Sonarman and have experienced first hand the number of foreign submarines that have attempted to approach our shores. The "submarine cold war" never truly ended and rarely (if ever) makes it to the media. Be thankful for this ruling. What John Q. Public does not know will allow you to sleep at night. Anyone who thinks or assumes that our ocean borders are impervious to attack is ignorant of that threat and is extremely obtuse.

If the ruling had gone the other way, the enemy boats would only have to watch our media (as it does now) and hang out off the coast of San Diego during the grey whale migration to keep the Navy from "going active" on them.

[Tree Hugger]

Rick- Learn how to spell before posting comments on the WORLD WIDE WEB.
No Terrorist- It's people like you who are going to destroy our environment. What do we need whales for?! Oh I don't know... How about to keep the fragile ocean ENVIRONMENT in tact? Or maybe you think we don't need the ocean either.... Every living thing on this planet has a purpose. If you destroy one species you start a chain recation that leads to the destruction of many different habitats. Maybe you should do some research on food chains.

Thank God for people like Roy and Tracy who understand that we are not the only species on the planet that needs to be kept safe. In fact, most of the other species on Earth need to be kept safe from us.

[Mary Kohler]

More like HELL NO!! This is a terrible decision. Once again, unbelievably arrogant people take the humane out of being human by showing a total lack of respect for life and common sense. I find it odd that people who live their lives based on fear cling to pseudo solutions at the expense of anything and everything with total disregard for future generations.

[Tracy Cermack]

This quote from Roberts: "...we give great deference to the professional judgment of military authorities concerning the relative importance of a particular military interest," -- Hmmm ... isn't that how we got the nightmare of Abu Ghraib? As English philosopher Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

[LovinlifeinMD]

Are you serious people??? Are you REALLY saying that you would rather have the whales protected than you, your friends, and your family? ARE YOU SERIOUS?? The same people complaining about this will be the first ones to complain if we have another terrorist attack on our soil.

[Susan]

It would seem that the Navy could train elsewhere during a season when a lot of whales are present. Would the data not be the same? Some sort of compromise could be reached that would benefit both whales and humans. How many terrorists are lurking off the coast of CA? We don't have to always kill our wildlife to carry on with our lives.

[cretinx]

zomgdz ze navy is protecting us from the terrorists - because so many terrorists out there have nuclear powered submarines or other weapons that require the use of sonar.

Get with it people and stop buying into the conservative agenda.

Whales are essential to the ocean's ecosystem, and the ocean is essential to our survival (algea process c02 and release oxygen).

[Jonathan]

Well let's see save the whales or protect our national security? That's a tough one but I would have to go with national security. It's a big ocean out there the whales will have to move somewhere else. I'm just saying!

[madeline]

Human beings are the top of the food chain and therefore the most vulnerable when the interconnections that now support us begin to fail. What good is a navy if there is not enough good water to drink? What good is a navy if there isn't enough food for the billions of us? It is all connected. As we continue to lose species the planet is not in peril it is humanity and our quality of life.
I hope people wake up sooner than later, for the good of the next 7 generations.

[NAVYDAD]

I have two sons in the Navy. I believe that we need to protect the environment but need to be reasonable. While the whales need protection if MY son's ship is torpedoed by a silent submarine I would want the ability to sue the environmental defense fund for MY loss.

[Molly R]

Hell yes!! My husband is a STG (sonar technician) and I would rather him learn to do his job properly than to hurt a whales ear.

Whales are cool and all but come on now.

[Creed]

I was in the Navy and I'm glad to see that Justice Roberts got this one right.

This has nothing to do with "politics" and EVERYTHING to do with national security. Did you ever see The Hunt for Red October, you might laugh and say it's just a movie but it's closer to reality than you might like to admit.

There are enemy subs capable of sitting off our coast and launching nuclear weapons.

[Chebrodsky]

The Supreme Court should have tried scuba diving in the vicinity of the active hi-powered sonar. Those who survived the ordeal would probably side with the whales. The US has spent billions on anti-submarine warfare for decades by passively listening for subs (old Soviet ballistic missile platforms) all over the world. It doesn't seem to matter that these subs rarely leave port and then for only a few weeks at a time. 300 diesel/electric subs are no threat to the US and money spent looking for them in our coastal waters is a gigantic waste of money.