On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme court ruled in favor of national security over environmental issues and permitted the Navy to use high-powered sonar during training exercises, despite pleas by environmentalists who fear that marine mammals could be injured by them. The latter side does not give up the fight

The court’s ruling lifted the limitations on the use of sonar during Navy exercises held 12 miles off the coast of Southern California. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote to underscore the importance of training Navy crews to detect modern silent submarines, and that they should not be forced to disable their sonar in the case of nearby whales.

"The public interest in conducting training exercises with active sonar under realistic conditions plainly outweighs" the environmentalist concerns, said Roberts, who spoke for a majority of five justices. It "does not strike us as a close question," he continued. He cited doubts that whales were actually harmed by sonar. To aid his argument he mentioned that the Navy had been operating off the Californian coast for 40 years "without a single documented sonar-related injury to any marine mammal."

The Natural Resources Defense Council as well as other environmentalist groups disagreed. They pointed to studies conducted worldwide that showed that the piercing underwater sonar sound waves caused whales to flee in panic or dive too deeply. In Greece, the Canary Islands and the Bahamas there have been reports of beached whales after sonar had been used in the areas. Autopsies conducted on them showed internal bleeding near the ears.

The decision is a victory for the policy of the old Bush administration, and while Obama’s cabinet can choose to follow the same defense policy, it is not bound to do so.

"We don't know what the Supreme Court decision means for the next go-round. We will have a new commander in chief. It's a new game," said Mark Delapaine, an analyst with the California Coastal Commission.