Legal Documents Related to Impact of Naval Exercises on Marine Mammals

I was working on my thesis proposal today. Some of the sources I'm citing are court cases pertaining the the US Navy's impact on marine mammals, and I thought other people might be interested in reading these legal documents, as a supplement to the Navy EIS. This is not an all-inclusive list.

I'm going to link to the cases and then copy/add a summary

NRDC v. Evans, 2008: "This action challenges the United States National Marine Fisheries Service’s (“NMFS”) July 16, 2002 decisio n to authorize – and the United States Department of the Navy’s (“Navy”) decision to deploy – a powerful new global sonar system that will broadcast extraordinarily intense sound waves through as much as 75 percent of the world’s oceans.  

NRDC v. Gutierrez, 2008: Relates to the use of LFA Sonar in operations in the Western Pacific Ocean. 

NRDC v. Winter, 2008: "On June 28, 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), along with several other environmental groups (collectively, Plaintiffs) filed suit (hereinafter NRDC II ) against Winter, in his capacity as Secretary of the Navy, alleging that the Navy had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).   Plaintiffs also filed an application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction to enjoin the Navy's use of mid-frequency active sonar during its Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2006 training exercise. RIMPAC 2006 was a major multi-national Navy training exercise that took place in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands from June 26 to July 28, 2008.   Starting July 6, the training included the use of mid-frequency active sonar, which is known to disrupt some of the marine mammals that live in those waters." More info from Cornell School of Law.

Here are some articles on the outcome of NDRC v. Winter in the US Supreme Court:

Beyond Winter v. NRDC: A Decade of Litigating the Navy's Active SONAR Around the Environmental Exemptions

Whales and Sonar: Environmental Exemptions for the Navy's Mid-Frequency Active Sonar Testing 

Top US Court Allows Navy Sonar Use

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