Subject: US Navy assault on whales could begin November 1
Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2002
 

Dear friends

My group emails of late have dealt almost exclusively with the Bush Administration's determination to mount a pre-emptive attack on the people of Iraq, but there are other species that this ill-advised government is putting under threat of injury and death. I ask that you read the following message from the Natural Resources Defense Council and respond in any way that you can.

in pursuit of peace with justice
Patricia

"I will set my face to the wind and scatter my handful of seeds.  It's no big thing to scatter seeds, but I must have courage to keep facing the wind".--Arabic Proverb
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Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

I am contacting you via email because NRDC is facing an imminent legal and financial deadline in a case of extraordinary importance. We need your immediate help.

Just days from now, NRDC attorneys will appear in U.S. Federal Court and seek to stop the U.S. Navy from operating a new and extremely dangerous sonar system that would blast hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean habitat with noise so intense it can maim, deafen or even kill whales at close range.

NRDC is racing to court because the Bush administration has just given its approval for the Navy to begin deploying this Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans. Even worse, the Navy intends to begin operations of this frightening new technology as early as November 1st!

We need your immediate help.  Please go to

http://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa2.asp

right now to make an online emergency contribution that will help us fight this critical legal battle.

Marine scientists are warning that this sonar system may threaten the very survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering on the brink of extinction.

As opposed to traditional "passive" sonar, which locates submarines by listening for sound in the water, the new "active" sonar uses underwater loudspeakers to blast the ocean with an effective noise level of 235 decibels and then waits for a response. At close range, the shock waves are so intense they can destroy whales' eardrums, cause their lungs to hemorrhage, and even kill. Further from the source, LFA noise still can result in permanent hearing loss in marine mammals after a single transmission, and cause whales to swerve from their migration paths.

The dangers are hardly theoretical. Two years ago, the mere testing of high-intensity Navy sonar in mid-frequency range caused a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas. Whales from at least three different species died, their inner ears bleeding from the explosive power of the sonar signal.

Does the Navy have the right to conduct a giant uncontrolled experiment on our oceans and every living creature in them?

The Bush administration seems to think so. It has issued a permit that exempts the Navy from having to obey the Marine Mammal Protection Act, in effect giving the military a blank check to harass and injure whales and
dolphins at will.

We think that's unconscionable and illegal. But we must have your immediate help if we are to prevail in court. We urgently need to raise significant new funds in order to cover litigation expenses and stop the imminent deployment of deadly, noise-producing sonar.

Again, I urge you to help by going to
https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa2.asp
right now and making an online emergency contribution.

Please join us in stopping the U.S. Navy before it unleashes this technological menace on the world's oceans. With your help, we can make sure that no more whales have to suffer and die from high-power sonar. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

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BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org


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