August 23, 2010
This announcement states that the NOAA, has given the Navy a guide to protections for Marine Mammals and other Aquatic Life.
Perhaps I am misinterpreting, but this is really a just a guideline that those who are set up to protect our Ocean's and Marine Wildlife have given.
As I read it, these are mere suggestions and what NOAA would like to see happen. I notice that the MMPA has been fashioned to this point, to exempt the very ones who do the most damage to our Oceans and all of the life therein.
I have read several news reports recently where pilot whales are washing up, starved and thirsting to death. In the last several months, there have been 25, 45, 12 washing up in droves. Who is going to mitigate that? What is mitigation in the destruction of an entire habitat.(link) Fishing Industry Starving Whales?
[more links below]
Is it not cruelty that it is acceptable to cause deafness and imbalance to Sea Mammals. One of the "guidelines" given were, "if the Navy personnel, notice Marine activity, within a certain distance, they are to stop underwater explosions and certain Sonar use that causes confusion and sometimes death.
Under the authorization the Navy is required to follow mitigation measures to minimize effects on marine mammals including:
- establishing marine mammal safety zones around each vessel using sonar;
- using Navy observers to shut down sonar operations if marine mammals are seen within designated safety zones;
- using exclusion zones, to ensure that explosives are not detonated when animals are detected within a certain distance; and
- implementing a stranding response plan that includes a training shutdown provision in certain circumstances and allows for the Navy to contribute in-kind services to NOAA’s Fisheries Service if the agency has to conduct a stranding response and investigation.
NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the Navy have worked to develop a robust monitoring plan that includes extensive survey and photo-identification databases that will strengthen the marine mammal density and distribution data available in the Mariana Islands. Additionally, the Navy has developed (with input from NOAA’s Fisheries Service) an integrated comprehensive monitoring plan to prioritize monitoring goals and standardize data collection methods across all of their U.S. range complexes.
I don't know about you, but the last time I was on a job, if it had been up to a Contractor, or Owner to "notice" something that would change their schedule or the course of their day, it would definitely go "Unnoticed".
It appears that no one is responsible anymore for the Protection of our Oceans and the Life therein. Why make an Act at all? Why make exemptions for ITA, to the very ones who do the most destruction. What is mitigation to a dead world? Who do you pay for that? God...
I am afraid our careless demeanor in caring for our Planet will be our own demise. Is there anything that can be done? No. Probably not. Considering that "Energy" and Oil/Gas Exploration simply must file for a permit to "accidentally" kill a bunch of Marine Mammals and Aquatic life, I think it is safe to say, kiss our Oceans goodbye.
