By JOHN A. PANNETON, National President

The late-June mess in Hawaii makes clear that Congress must legislate an end to the continual legal skirmishing between the Navy and special interest groups over how best to safeguard the nation’s security while protecting marine mammals. Unless a permanent balance of those vital interests is attained, the Navy will have little chance to achieve a critical goal: Improving its ability to detect diesel submarines in the littoral areas of the world’s oceans.

That requires the use of active sonar, which some special interest groups say leads to the strandings of marine mammals that use sonar-like sounds to hunt for food, navigate and communicate. In too many instances, the courts have supported these groups, endangering the nation’s security.

One of the Navy’s toughest warfighting challenges is detecting quiet diesel subs of the type deployed by potential adversaries such as North Korea and Iran. It is made more difficult by the littoral regions’ ambient noise, rapidly changing sea conditions and vessel traffic. In exercises with allies, the Navy also has found that “enemy” diesel subs sometimes could penetrate the defenses of Navy battle groups. In actual combat, the results could be cataclysmic.

It is essential that the Navy train with active sonar in littoral areas to hone its skills in antisubmarine warfare. That was a chief purpose of the multinational Rim of the Pacific (RimPac) exercises scheduled June 26-July 28 near Hawaii. The biennial exercise has been conducted since 1968, accompanied in recent years by the efforts of some environmentalists to curtail the operation of the navies’ sonar.

Months prior to RimPac 2006, the Navy began working with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to devise extraordinary measures to protect marine life, including advance searches by aircraft and ships for mammals in exercise areas, the reduction of sonar power if mammals are located within 1,000 meters and the cessation of sonar operations if mammals come within 200 meters of RimPac ships.

NMFS’ parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued a permit covering RimPac, concluding that it was “not likely to jeopardize” endangered species.

Nonetheless, a federal district judge in Los Angeles issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the use of active sonar at RimPac. The order was lifted days later when the Navy agreed to other steps, principally that it would not go near a marine preserve in Hawaii, which was never part of RimPac plans. This sad episode is similar to a 2003 permanent injunction by a U.S. District Court in Northern California against the operation of a low-frequency active sonar that was not planned for use at RimPac, but remains a potential centerpiece of the Navy’s antisubmarine efforts.

The courts are unnecessarily preventing the Navy from obtaining vital skills, thus placing sailors and Marines at risk and ignoring the service’s lengthy record as an aggressive steward of the environment. The Navy spends millions each year on independent research aimed at preserving marine life, operates its sonar with the diligence requisite to protect marine mammals and has been applauded by environmental groups for its management of naval facilities. Moreover, the courts have failed to recognize that sonar-related strandings of marine mammals have not been scientifically verified and are, at worst, extremely rare. Most mammal deaths linked to humans are associated with commercial fishing operations.

The legal skirmishes certain to come amid each future exercise will accomplish nothing, other than increase the risks to the nation. Congress must find a way, within the broad context of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), to safeguard the nation’s security while protecting marine life. In 2004, Congress partly achieved that balance with minor amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, setting a precedent for completion of the task with careful changes to NEPA in the next session. We will be providing members with the means to alert their elected officials about the importance of balancing national security and environmental needs.

Semper Fidelis.