"U.S. Judge Rejects Whale Suit Against Navy Sub Training Site"

"The U.S. Navy can build a $100 million submarine training range off the coast of Southern Georgia and Northern Florida, a federal judge ruled Monday, dismissing a lawsuit by environmental groups claiming the project would harm the already endangered North Atlantic right whale."

"Judge Lisa Wood in Savannah held that the Navy complied with federal environmental law in analyzing the impact of the range on the whale and its only known calving grounds.

Although North American right whales have been protected from commercial whaling since 1935, their badly depleted population has never recovered and could now number as few as 313, Wood wrote."

David Beasley reports for Reuters September 11, 2012.