Petition Background

The U.S. Navy is seeking permission to kill, permanently injure, or otherwise seriously harm whales and dolphins more than 31 million times over the next five years throughout Southern California, Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and along the Atlantic Coast, using sonar and other equipment. This staggering and unprecedented amount of harm is the Navy’s own estimate of impacts from its training and testing activities to more than 40 marine mammal species, which can include loss of hearing, maiming or bleeding to death. The Navy is seeking permission to increase the use of this devastating sound and to use it intensively throughout an area the size of the country of Mexico. This is our last opportunity to comment on this proposal. The Navy should not be allowed to inflict harm to marine wildlife!

The Navy will use underwater explosions, sinking of ships and active sonar so loud and intense it can seriously harm or kill marine mammals. This sonar alone has been implicated in mass stranding of marine mammals all over the world. Now they are asking to radically increase what they have done in the past, knowing that its activities will kill, maim, and harass millions of marine mammals including 9 species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Maybe you have watched a whale, dolphin, otter, seal or other marine mammal, in the wild, or seen "Flipper" or other cetaceans on TV. Possibly you have dreamed of swimming with them one day. If this is so, you know in your heart we must do everything we can to protect them. We know how special they are and why we are in such awe of them. We cannot allow this travesty to occur in our oceans when we have the ability to stop or minimize this damage.

Fortunately, there is the possibility to minimize the damage by taking action right now. The National Marine Fisheries Service's job is to protect marine mammals and endangered species. With your signature, we will let them know we are watching, we are expecting them to do their job, and we are not going to tolerate this mass destruction in our oceans.
By law the Fisheries Service has to let the public comment on its preliminary decision. We have until March 11, 2013. It has never been more important than it is right now for all of us to act. Please sign!

SIGN HERE

http://signon.org/sign/stop-us-navy-plans-to-1