An Associated Press story came out even before the Navy officially published its environmental impact statement in the Federal Register.
The EIS predicted that 200 deaths and 1,600 instances of hearing loss would be suffered by marine mammals in the Navy’s testing and training ranges in Hawaii and California, reported AP writer Audrey McAvoy.
The old Navy analysis, she said, listed injuries or deaths to about 100 marine mammals.
So what caused these increased estimates of injury and death, and what are the implications for the Northwest Training and Testing Range Complex in Washington state?
It turns out that the causes are multiple and the implications many, as I reported in a story in Sunday’s Kitsap Sun.
In both California-Hawaii and the Northwest, the greatest effects come from the use of sonar and explosives, which the Navy considers essential to proper training and testing. By far, the greatest number of injuries and deaths are to dolphins. But the higher numbers do not mean that the Navy will be changing its operations to a great degree. If one doesn’t read this carefully, the higher numbers are easy to get confused.
