The Navy's use of high intensity active sonar has been suspected in several incidents of marine mammal beachings and deaths. The most recent incident occurred in May 2003 in the San Juan Islands near Washington. A total of 11 harbor porpoises died after Navy testing of mid-frequency sonar in the nearby Haro Strait.

While the defeat of low-frequency sonar use by the Navy is a positive development in the campaign to end noise pollution, there are still many other sources of damaging noise, such as mid-frequency sonar and offshore seismic testing to look for oil and gas, which are still in widespread use.

The ocean is an amazing place and we are committed to protecting the many threatened animals that live there. To that end, we will continue to fight against dangerous threats such as noise pollution, seismic testing, offshore drilling for oil and gas and continued commercial whaling.