Groups to challenge Navy project near right whale nursery

The Southern Environmental Law Center along with other conservation groups sent notice of our intent to challenge in court the U.S. Navy’s decision to build its $100 million Undersea Warfare Training Range next to the only known calving ground for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Florida and Georgia. The segmentation of the project—constructing first before considering the impacts of operating it–and its introduction of multiple known threats–ship strikes, entanglement, and noise disturbances–into an area critical to right whale mothers and calves are at issue.