Limit Sonar Testing by the U.S. Navy in Order to Protect Whales

High-intensity sonar activity causes great distress and actual harm to whales, dolphins, and other sea creatures. As recently reported (AP 12/15/2013), the U.S. Navy plans to increase sonar testing over the next 5 years and estimates these activities will kill 341 whales and dolphins off the East Coast, Southern California, and Hawaii, will inflict 13,000 serious injuries and nearly 2,000,000 minor injuries, and will affect behavior in 27,000,000 instances. We request the Administration to create safety zones near marine sanctuaries and areas with concentrations of blue, fin, and gray whales, and to limit sonar testing to ocean "desert" areas where exercises could be conducted without causing as vast an amount of devastation to sea life in general and whales in particular.