Acknowledging the recent US Supreme Court decision (Winter v. NRDC) to allow the US Navy to continue testing and use of its Low-Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) System, a technology shown to cause serious damage to various species of marine mammals, we urge President-elect Barack Obama of the United States to exercise as soon as possible after his inauguration his authority as Commander-in-Chief of the US armed forces and order the Secretary of the Navy to cease and desist immediately use of the LFAS system in open waters. We acknowledge that the testing of national security-sensitive technology is an absolute necessity for the preparedness of the United States to meet military threats domestically and abroad, and so we stress that tests with this technology are not necessarily to be prohibited entirely. What we ask is that the President order that any tests of this technology be done only in a restricted area (such as in a man-made environment), free of mammalian life, and wherein the disorienting and damaging effects of the technology cannot be felt by any of the affected creatures outside of the testing environment.

We respectfully submit our request to the President-elect for exercise in his capacity as President after his inauguration.