Navy's marine life sonar ban upheld

The Navy must abide by limits on its sonar training off Southern California because the exercises could harm dozens of species of whales and dolphins, a federal appeals court ruled.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday night rejected the Navy's appeal of restrictions that banned high-powered sonar within 22.2 kilometers of the coast and set other limits that could affect Navy training exercises to begin this month.

Also on Friday, a federal judge in Hawaii issued a similar ban for that state's coastline.