"A federal judge in California has sided with environmental groups in their lawsuit against the U.S. government over Navy training exercises off the West Coast involving sonar that they say harms endangered whales, dolphins and other protected marine mammals."
"The ruling, the latest in a long-running dispute pitting whales against the military, requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider permits allowing the Navy to conduct its exercises in a vast stretch of open waters along the Pacific Northwest coast.
In a 43-page opinion issued late on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Nandor Vadas in Eureka, California, found that the Marine Fisheries Service failed to apply the best available science in assessing impacts on whales and dolphins from the Navy's use of sonar."
Laura Zuckerman reports for Reuters September 26, 2013.
