Public hearings will be held throughout the state next month on a Navy environmental study that would allow the continued use of sonar in the 270,250 square miles around the Hawaiian Islands, known as the Hawaii Range Complex.

The 116-page study is the supplement to a draft environmental impact statement that was released in July whose critical component focused on how marine mammals were affected by sonar used by the Navy.

Despite claims and lawsuits by environmental groups, the Navy maintains that there have been no documented cases of its sonar alone killing any marine mammals in the Pacific.

The 2007 environmental study included what the Navy considers the minimum mitigation efforts its crews and ships would be required to do when a marine mammal is sighted.

These rules included posting lookouts during the exercise and the use of only passive sonar when a marine mammal is seen within 200 yards of a vessel. Sightings of whales or dolphins also would require sonar operators to power down their equipment.

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(Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin)