Underwater warfare range planned for coast
JACKSONVILLE (AP) – The Navy says it will locate an underwater warfare training range off the coast of Jacksonville, despite concerns about endangered right whales.
BJ Penn, assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and environment, signed the record of decision Monday. The environmental impact statement in June recommended the north Florida site.
The undersea warfare center will cover about 625-square-miles in an area where a variety of Navy training takes place. The Navy said it is outside the area designated as critical habitat to the northern right whales.
The $100 million range will be used to provide ships, aircraft and submarines with realistic anti-submarine warfare training.
“The Department of the Navy is committed to protecting the ocean while maintaining readiness in this critical mission area,” said Donald Schregardus, deputy secretary for the Navy for the environment. “Today’s decision satisfies both of these vitally important objectives.”
Environmentalists were upset with the Navy’s decision and concerned about the possible impact of the whales, which use the coasts off of north Florida and south Georgia to give birth and nurse their calves. There are only 250 to 350 northern right whales in existence.
Some of the groups that opposed the training area were Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, The Humane Society of the United States, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“The Navy’s decision to pass off an undersea warfare training range as just a construction project is an obvious dodge of environmental protections for right whales and commercially valuable marine life,” said Catherine Wannamaker, an attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center.
“Proceeding with construction locks in public funds and location before the range is evaluated and approved for ship traffic, sonar, and debris near the only known nursery for right whales and within areas critical to commercially valuable marine life,” she said.
The Navy said the range will not be ready for use until 2014.