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Action Alert on the Bush administration assault on the Marine Mammal Protection Act
The Marine Mammal Protection Act is under assault from the Bush administration on two fronts.
- The Department of Defense has resurrected its effort in Congress, defeated last fall, to exempt itself from the requirements of the whole range of laws that have protected America’s environment since the Nixon administration. Gutting the Marine Mammal Protection Act is a major target.
- At the end of February 2003, the Administration circulated in Congress its version of the bill to reauthorize that MMPA, with amendments that would seriously weaken the existing definition of harassment.
The more urgent of these two, separate, initiatives is the DOD bill, introduced as an amendment to the 2004 defense authorization bill. That one is being rushed through Congress on a fast track. With war imminent in Iraq, it will be difficult for House and Senate members to vote and argue against a measure sold as necessary to protect our fighting men and women.
These are some of the changes the Pentagon’s proposed language would bring about:
- By changing the definition of the term “harassment,” requiring actual injuries or the “significant potential to injure” marine mammals, the DOD amendment would raise the threshold at which a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service is required. For “Level B Harassment,” the DOD language changes the language requiring a small take permit for disturbance of critical behaviors to require actual abandonment by the marine mammals of their breeding, feeding, mating, and and other critical behaviors. Further, the world “significant,” which Defense argues will add precision to the requirements of the MMPA actually adds a new element of imprecision: what exactly constitutes “significant potential to injure?”
- It eliminates the requirement that takes are limited to “small numbers” of animals in specific geographic regions, opening the door to activities that could take hundreds of thousands of marine mammals over thousands of miles of oceans, as is possible with deployment of Long Range Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS).
- It imposes shorter deadlines on the wildlife agencies issuing permits, limiting their ability to conduct meaningful environmental reviews of Pentagon activities and to respond to comments from the public and from scientists.
- It creates a broad exemption for defense activities that would allow the DOD to bypass completely the review process. The Secretary of Defense could declare on hisown authority successive two year exemptions for activities he deems “necessary for national defense.” He would be required to confer with the federal wildlife agencies (the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service), but these agencies are given no express role in the decision. Unlike previous exemptions written into various environmental laws, the new one is not triggered by war or national emergency but could be applied to virtually any class of military activity at any time. And there is no limit on the number of such two-year periods a Secretary of Defense could declare.
The Pentagon has failed to make the case that such sweeping changes are necessary. None of the more than 20 DOD applications for “small take” or “incidental harassment” authorizations ever has been denied. A General Accounting Office study announced in May 2002 concluded that the Defense Department had not demonstrated the need for major changes in the MMPA. In fact, it appears that the MMPA process has been functioning much as Congress intended.
Along with other conservation organizations, the Sierra Club has argued that there are good possibilities for improved coordination and advanced planning between the DOD and the wildlife agencies that would go far to meeting the Pentagon’s needs.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Take action!
The time is very short to prevent damage to the MMPA. Both House and Senate Committees held hearings on the Pentagon’s proposed language on March 13, and the legislation is fast-tracked for quick approval by the Congress.
Call or FAX your Congressman and Senator and urge them not to allow these sweeping changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has served the nation well since 1971 by protecting the whole range of marine mammal species while allowing necessary defense, fishing, scientific research and other activities to proceed with reasonable mitigation and reporting requirements. Use the material in this action alert to buttress your request.
Members of Congress can be reached through the Capital switchboard: 202 224 3121. Get Congressional FAX numbers at this website
Stay informed about the status of Marine Mammal Protection Act reauthorization and the DOD attempt to exempt its own activities from the provisions of the MMPA. Sierra Club members can join the Marine Mammal Forum, an e-mail listserv that provides regular information and updates on this and many other issues affecting whales, dolphins, seals, and other marine mammals. Click here to join the list.
No representation to a member of Congress is more important or persuasive than one from his or her own District. So write your representatives first! However, we have identified a list of House and Senate members who are high priority targets—mostly members of the armed services, defense authorizations, or environmental committees. Let these Senators and Representatives know of your deep concern that our nation’s environmental heritage be kept safe. It, too, is part of our national security. If one of these high priority members represents you, it is doubly important that you write or call.
House
Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD) Chair, Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, Resources Committee
Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) Chair, Readiness Subcommittee, Armed Services Committee
Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) Ranking member, Armed Services Committee; member of the Oceans Subcommittee of Resources Committee as well
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) House Minority Leader
Rep. Richard Pombo (D-CA) Chair, House Resources Committee
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) Ranking member, House Resources Committee
Rep. Ike Skelton, (D-MO) Ranking member, House Armed Services Committee
Senate
Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) Ranking member, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) Armed Services Committee
Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) Senate Minority Leader
Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) Ranking Member, Commerce Committee
Sen. Daniel Inouye, Ranking member, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee; member, Senate Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oceans
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) Ranking member, Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Chair, Senate Commerce Committee
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) Chair Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans
Sen. John Warner (R-VA) Chair, Senate Armed Services Committee
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