Whales Song and Navy Sonar

Who wouldn't be misanthropic with the latest news? Yesterday the Defense Department granted the Navy a national security exemption to use sonar during Naval exercises off both coasts for the next six months. This executive legal manuever allows the Navy to get around the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

So the U.S. will trade endangered species protection for Navy sonar war games. It's a bad trade off. The U.S. is not threatened by terrorist submarines. They don't have any. And why should they acquire them when they are winning the war without them?

I suspect the primary reason has to do with the lucrative contract for such testing. Members of Congress, weapons systems contractors join with the military for jobs and profits. Tragically the innocent and more valuable marine life will have to suffer disorientation and possibly death for these trivial pursuits.

So no whale singing while the ghetto-blasters of sonar are blaring.