I am not affiliated with NRDC nor do I represent them.  I am just passing this along to help the Whales!

 Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

 I am contacting you via email because NRDC is facing an imminent
 legal and financial deadline in a case of extraordinary importance.
 Because you've done so much to help us protect wildlands and wildlife
 I thought you'd want to know about this critical situation.

 Just days from now, NRDC attorneys will appear in U.S. Federal Court
 and seek to stop the U.S. Navy from operating a new and extremely
 dangerous sonar system that would blast hundreds of thousands of
 square miles of ocean habitat with noise so intense it can maim,
 deafen or even kill whales at close range.

 NRDC is racing to court because the Bush administration has just
 given its approval for the Navy to begin deploying this Low Frequency
 Active (LFA) sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans.
 Even worse, the Navy intends to begin operations of this frightening
 new technology as early as November 1st!

 We need your immediate help.  Please go to
  https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa2.asp
 right now to make an online emergency contribution that will help us
 fight this critical legal battle.

 Marine scientists are warning that this sonar system may threaten the
 very survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering
 on the brink of extinction.

 As opposed to traditional "passive" sonar, which locates submarines
 by listening for sound in the water, the new "active" sonar uses
 underwater loudspeakers to blast the ocean with an effective noise
 level of 235 decibels and then waits for a response. At close range,
 the shock waves are so intense they can destroy whales' eardrums,
 cause their lungs to hemorrhage, and even kill. Further from the
 source, LFA noise still can result in permanent hearing loss in
 marine mammals after a single transmission, and cause whales to
 swerve from their migration paths.

 The dangers are hardly theoretical. Two years ago, the mere testing
 of high-intensity Navy sonar in mid-frequency range caused a mass
 stranding of whales in the Bahamas. Whales from at least three
 different species died, their inner ears bleeding from the explosive
 power of the sonar signal. 

 Does the Navy have the right to conduct a giant uncontrolled
 experiment on our oceans and every living creature in them?

 The Bush administration seems to think so. It has issued a permit
 that exempts the Navy from having to obey the Marine Mammal
 Protection Act, in effect giving the military a blank check to harass
 and injure whales and dolphins at will.

 We think that's unconscionable and illegal. But we must have your
 immediate help if we are to prevail in court. We urgently need to
 raise significant new funds in order to cover litigation expenses and
 stop the imminent deployment of deadly, noise-producing sonar.

 Again, I urge you to help by going to