Utopia Talk / Politics / German navy wins major battle

Daemon Member	Sun Nov 24 04:51:24 Don't get in our way! http://www...es-during-exercises/a-51387345 German navy accused of killing porpoises during exercises The German navy appears to have killed 18 porpoises by detonating old sea mines during military exercises in the Baltic Sea. Animal rights activists say the actions violated the law. Animal rights organizations have accused the German navy of killing 18 endangered porpoises by exploding British World War I mines in a marine nature preserve in the Fehmarn Belt, a narrow strait between Denmark and Germany. In a statement released on Saturday, the environmental organization Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) said the Bundesmarine exploded 42 mines during NATO exercises in August, 39 of which were inside a nature preserve. The group said 18 dead porpoises were later found, and that the military's failure to consult environmental protection authorities before the exercises amounted to a violation of animal protection laws. "Each mine tore open a crater five meters (16.4 feet) wide and 1.5 meters deep in a strictly protected area. Everything in a range of 10 to 30 meters (30 to 100 feet) was killed," NABU head Leif Müller said in the statement. "This incident is unacceptable and reveals the navy's ignorance of natural protection laws and inadequate environmental standards, as well as the complete failure of politicians in dealing with the problem of old war munitions." The government responded to the accusations in an answer to a parliamentary information request by the Green party's Steffi Lemke, published earlier this week, arguing that the old war munitions had to be neutralized during the NATO maneuvers as the presence of the alliance's mine clearance force represented an important opportunity to protect life and limb. The government said that this case demonstrated a conflict between environmental protection laws and rules to prevent an imminent threat. NABU was not impressed with this explanation. In its statement, the environmental group said that the location of the mines had been known since 2016, and accused the government of using the NATO maneuvers as an opportunity to get rid of them cheaply without having to consult environmental agencies. Technology to protect wildlife during the clearing of water mines does exist: pressurized hoses that releases air pressure is supposed to create noise that will ward porpoises and other sea mammals off. But a navy spokesman told public broadcaster NDR that installing them in this case would have been dangerous, and that the explosives in question were particularly volatile. The government argued that the munitions off Germany's coast in the North and Baltic Seas represented a danger to shipping that had to be neutralized. It added that some 637 torpedoes, mines, and depth charges, had already been detonated or recovered in marine nature preserves. NABU has estimated that some 1.6 million tons of conventional munitions and some 300,000 tons of chemical weapons from the First and Second World Wars are still lying in the sea off the coast of Germany. Some 40,000 ships pass through the Fehmarn Belt every year.
Sam Adams Member	Mon Nov 25 21:44:23 Those fucking dolphins shouldnt have spied for great britain during word war 1. -tirpitz, probably
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