Proposed Range
Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR)
The U.S. Navy’s proposed mid-frequency active sonar training range would be located 47 nautical miles off the coast south of Cape Lookout and cover over 500 square nautical miles, view coordinates. Approximately 161 sonar training exercises, each lasting from six to 24 hours, would occur at the range each year.
Hardware such as torpedoes and sonobuoys (used to produce and detect sound waves) would be used in operations in the sonar range. Approximately 8,000 sonobuoys would be deployed each year, but the metallic casings and parachutes used for deployment would not be recovered and would pose a potential entanglement threat to bottom-feeding fish and sea turtles.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) states that there would be no effort to retrieve much of the military hardware. This would include up to 8,000 lithium and lead chloride batteries and more than 10,000 pounds of lead ballast that would be dropped each year on the ocean floor. View Navy trash dumped off the North Carolina coast during Naval manuvers.
Frank Tursi, Cape Lookout Coastkeeper quoted in the Tideland News, said, "They're going to turn the ocean floor into a trash heap with hazardous materials that will change the profile of the bottom. It's going to affect commercial offshore fishing trawlers and their ability to operate within that 500 square mile area."
Coordinates
Navy Degrees
degrees / minutes
degrees / minutes / seconds
Loran
34.07 N
34 deg 4.20 min
34 deg 4 min 12 sec
27056
76.56 W
76 deg 33.60 min
76 deg 33 min 36 sec
39434
33.83 N
33 deg 49.80 min
33 deg 49 min 48 sec
26990
76.27 W
76 deg 16.20 min
76 deg 16 min 12 sec
39439
33.54 N
33 deg 32.40 min
33 deg 32 min 24 sec
27036
76.63 W
76 deg 37.80 min
76 deg 37 min 48 sec
39262
33.77 N
33 deg 46.20 min
33 deg 46 min 12 sec
27100
76.95 W
76 deg 57.00 min
76 deg 57 min 0 sec
39223
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This debris was retrieved by a charter boat captain on June 3, 2007. Other charter captains, during this time frame, reported the same type of trash floating in the gulf stream off the North Carolina coast.
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