Navy settles whale sonar suit

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy and environmentalists are both claiming victory in a lawsuit that challenged the Navy's use of sonar as dangerous to whales.

The Navy said the settlement announced Saturday does not require protective measures for whales beyond those agreed to in 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, called the settlement a victory because it requires the Navy to implement mitigation measures and opens the Navy's sonar research to civilian review, the Times reported.

"This does not resolve all of our disputes with the Navy, but it sets in place a process to deal with future disagreements," said Joel Reynolds, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which claims sonar noises cause whales to flee in panic or dive too deeply.

The case is separate from the one in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in November the Navy could not be unduly required to protect whales, the Times reported.