The contentious issue of Navy sonar and its effects on marine mammals has again been in the courts and news recently.

It's environmentalists 2, Navy 0 in the latest round of West Coast federal court decisions, with a hearing scheduled today before U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Honolulu.

Last Monday, a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected a decision by President Bush granting an exemption to the Navy in the use of midfrequency sonar, saying there was no emergency to justify overriding environmental law.

U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper said the Navy must abide by an order prohibiting the use of sub-hunting sonar in whale-populated areas off the California coast.

On Wednesday, a federal court in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction limiting where the Navy can use a low-frequency sonar known as the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar, or SURTASS LFA.

U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco held that marine mammals, "many of whom depend on sensitive hearing for essential activities like finding food and mates and avoiding predators, will at a minimum be harassed by the extremely loud and far-traveling LFA sonar."

The preliminary injunction places the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, among other locations, off limits to routine operations, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

At 9:45 a.m. today, the environmental law firm Earthjustice, representing environmental groups Ocean Mammal Institute, Animal Welfare Institute, KAHEA, Center for Biological Diversity and the Surfrider Foundation, will argue for an injunction in a suit challenging Navy sonar exercises off Hawai'i.

The suit targets 12 separate sets of Undersea Warfare Exercises planned within the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and near the Papahanaumokuakea marine monument.

The Navy put out a release on Friday saying that some of the world's top experts on marine mammals and underwater acoustics had gathered in Honolulu last week for the Navy's Scientific Operational Naval Acoustic Research Conference, "an opportunity for Navy fleet operators, scientists and environmental specialists to advance the science and share information."

"While great progress has been made in recent years, many of the speakers noted that much remains to be learned about how sound behaves underwater and how it affects marine mammals," the release stated.

Jim Finneran of the Navy Marine Mammal Program said hearing thresholds — the faintest sound that a mammal can detect in the water — have been determined for 25 species of marine mammals.

Hearing thresholds for the more than 100 other marine mammal species, including all of the large baleen whales, have not been determined.

Finneran's research is part of the Navy's $14 million-a-year marine mammal research project.

Adm. Robert F. Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, said that budget will grow to $18 million in a few years.

"We are making a significant investment in the science," Willard said.

The Navy's primary method of detecting extremely quiet diesel-electric submarines is active, or "pinging," midfrequency sonar.

The Navy in the release said in March of 2000 in the Bahamas, 16 small whales beached themselves after they were exposed to sonar from a group of foreign and U.S. warships. Six died.

An investigation attributed the cause to sonar used in combination with certain specific physical and oceanographic conditions — including a narrow underwater canyon with no egress, the Navy said.

The Navy said it has since adopted measures to avoid using sonar in such conditions.

"With a strong scientific foundation, we hope to be able to continue the sonar training that's so vital to protecting our sailors at sea and become even better at preventing harm to marine mammals," Willard said.

IN BRIEF

MARINES RETURN; NO COMBAT DEATHS

Approximately 100 Marines and sailors with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment's "advance party" returned home Thursday from Anbar Province in western Iraq.

The remaining 900 Marines with the unit will be coming home through the month.

Some of the Marines were in Karma, near Fallujah.

The casualty count is a testament to the success of the so-called "Anbar awakening" and alliance with tribal sheiks — in large part with economic assistance payouts by the U.S..

The Hawai'i Marine battalion did not have a single KIA, or Marine "killed in action" on the seven-month deployment. A reporter with military.com embedded with the Hawai'i Marines said they were "fighting a pitched battle against boredom."

The unit that preceded them in Iraq, the 1st Battalion, also had no KIAs, according to the Kane'ohe Bay Marine Corps base.

The Hawai'i unit that is rotating back into Iraq, the 2nd Battalion, experienced a very different environment in Iraq after it arrived in the country in September 2006. Twenty-three Marines were killed on that deployment.

LT. GEN. KEITH J. STALDER NOMINATED

The Pentagon announced Friday that Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Keith J. Stalder has been nominated for appointment as the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific; commanding general, Fleet Marine Forces Pacific; and commander, Marine Corps Bases Pacific, and for reappointment to the rank of lieutenant general.

Stalder is presently serving as the commanding general, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

In August 2005, Lt. Gen. John F. Goodman took command of Marine Forces Pacific, which has its headquarters at Camp Smith.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.