NC Navy sonar range–public comment deadline TODAY (Jan. 30)
You may have heard about this, and even if you don’t fish this far north, I hope you’ll help. It could have wide-ranging effects even out your way.
The United States Navy is proposing to put an offshore underwater sonar training range 47 miles off the coast of Carteret/Onslow counties.
They’ve done a REALLY poor job on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). They say that closing 660 square miles (500 nautical) of ocean 47 miles offshore 160 days a year and trashing a bunch of live hard bottom won’t have any impact on anything–not fishing, not diving, not boating, not marine mammals, and not sea turtles. And they ‘may’ notify mariners when they’re having an exercise.
One of my friends told me that the sonar ‘pings’ are strong enough to potentially fry fish finders if boats find themselves in the water during an exercise. I don’t know if that’s true, but the Navy did not address it in their DEIS.
And they’re doing all these sneaky things, too: they didn’t really tell anyone about the public meetings, just put it in the Federal Register. They set the initial comment period deadline at Dec 28, three days after Christmas, I guess in hopes that everyone would be too busy with family and friends to pay attention. I paid attention, and my Christmas cards were really late. đ
Well, we got the comment period extended, 160 people showed up to the public meeting, and we’ve gotten just under 1,000 signatures on the petition and I still have 17 of them out in various places.
What you can do:
1) if you know anyone politically important, tell them that you’re concerned about this, and want to see a LOT more research done on impacts to the environment, the fish, and the economy before the Navy moves forward. Also fax or mail (they won’t accept e-mail) these comments to the Navy.
Mr. Keith Jenkins
(Code EV21KJ)
6505 Hampton Road Blvd.
Norfolk, VA 23508
Fax 757-322-4894
Governor Easley (ask him to use his power and his resources to help us)
telephone 800 662-7952 or 919 733 4240 or 919 733 5811
Also Senators Burr and Dole (you can get e-mail addresses from the ‘Save the Inlets’ page) . Senator Dole wrote the Navy, requesting an extension. So did Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight and multiple other state-level reps. DMF has negative comments about it. NMFS put out two drafts of a report on the January 05 whale strandings after a Navy sonar exercise in the Outer Banks–one with mention of Navy sonar and one without.
2) if you don’t have time for that, but want to express support, please sign my petition by sending me your name, city/state and your interest (fishermen, diver, resident, visitor to coast, etc). I’m going to try to attach it to this message. If you’re really excited, you could print it out, get other people to sign it and fax it in yourselves. That would be great! đ
Also, they say right whales aren’t present in these waters. We’ve had three mother/calf pair sitings in the past month, including one last Monday.
Ok, that was long. thanks for reading.
Christine
Link to DEIS so you can see for yourself:
Navy DEIS:
http://projects.earthtech.com/USWTR/EIS/DEIS.htm
ADMIN NOTE: Thank You Christine for submitting this. PLEASE KEEP US POSTED! Feel Free to use that SUBMIT button any time!
NC Navy sonar range–public comment deadline TODAY (Jan. 30)
You may have heard about this, and even if you don’t fish this far north, I hope you’ll help. It could have wide-ranging effects even out your way.
The United States Navy is proposing to put an offshore underwater sonar training range 47 miles off the coast of Carteret/Onslow counties.
They’ve done a REALLY poor job on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). They say that closing 660 square miles (500 nautical) of ocean 47 miles offshore 160 days a year and trashing a bunch of live hard bottom won’t have any impact on anything–not fishing, not diving, not boating, not marine mammals, and not sea turtles. And they ‘may’ notify mariners when they’re having an exercise.
One of my friends told me that the sonar ‘pings’ are strong enough to potentially fry fish finders if boats find themselves in the water during an exercise. I don’t know if that’s true, but the Navy did not address it in their DEIS.
And they’re doing all these sneaky things, too: they didn’t really tell anyone about the public meetings, just put it in the Federal Register. They set the initial comment period deadline at Dec 28, three days after Christmas, I guess in hopes that everyone would be too busy with family and friends to pay attention. I paid attention, and my Christmas cards were really late. đ
Well, we got the comment period extended, 160 people showed up to the public meeting, and we’ve gotten just under 1,000 signatures on the petition and I still have 17 of them out in various places.
What you can do:
1) if you know anyone politically important, tell them that you’re concerned about this, and want to see a LOT more research done on impacts to the environment, the fish, and the economy before the Navy moves forward. Also fax or mail (they won’t accept e-mail) these comments to the Navy.
Mr. Keith Jenkins
(Code EV21KJ)
6505 Hampton Road Blvd.
Norfolk, VA 23508
Fax 757-322-4894
Governor Easley (ask him to use his power and his resources to help us)
telephone 800 662-7952 or 919 733 4240 or 919 733 5811
Also Senators Burr and Dole (you can get e-mail addresses from the ‘Save the Inlets’ page) . Senator Dole wrote the Navy, requesting an extension. So did Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight and multiple other state-level reps. DMF has negative comments about it. NMFS put out two drafts of a report on the January 05 whale strandings after a Navy sonar exercise in the Outer Banks–one with mention of Navy sonar and one without.
2) if you don’t have time for that, but want to express support, please sign my petition by sending me your name, city/state and your interest (fishermen, diver, resident, visitor to coast, etc). I’m going to try to attach it to this message. If you’re really excited, you could print it out, get other people to sign it and fax it in yourselves. That would be great! đ
Also, they say right whales aren’t present in these waters. We’ve had three mother/calf pair sitings in the past month, including one last Monday.
Ok, that was long. thanks for reading.
Christine
Link to DEIS so you can see for yourself:
Navy DEIS:
http://projects.earthtech.com/USWTR/EIS/DEIS.htm
ADMIN NOTE: Thank You Christine for submitting this. PLEASE KEEP US POSTED! Feel Free to use that SUBMIT button any time!