The U.S. Navy wants to renew a five-year permit that could potentially injure or even kill whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals while using sonar and explosives during training exercises off Cape Cod and in 2.6 million square miles along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Navy will hold a public hearing on Wednesday in Providence, R.I., on its draft environmental impact statement, part of the process to obtain an exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The act, passed in 1972, forbids harming, harassing or killing any of those animals without permission from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.
In its impact statement, the Navy says the proposed testing could affect as many as 1.6 million animals per year during the five-year permit. They say there is little scientific proof that the sonar harms marine life, particularly if animals are not in close proximity to the source of the sonar or the explosion.
Read the complete story from The Cape Cod Times.