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This is Science in the News in VOA Special English. I'm SarahLong.

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And I'm Bob Doughty. This week: afull program of environmental news, from land and sea. We havereports on the problem of whales and military sonar ...

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The future of the Endangered Species Act in the United States ...

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And the reason why researchers are exploring some old shipwrecksoff the American coast.

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In nineteen seventy-three the United States Congress passed theEndangered Species Act. President Richard Nixon signed the measureinto law in December of that year.

The Endangered Species Act is designed to protect rare animalsand plants. It requires the government to take steps to savethreatened wildlife. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the NationalMarine Fisheries Service are two agencies that enforce this law.

These agencies decide which animals and plants to list as eitherthreatened or endangered. They decide how much of an area thesespecies need to live safely. And they decide how much human activityis acceptable in those areas.

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In some cases, the two agencies must work with a third, theEnvironmental Protection Agency. One of the jobs of the E.P.A. is toapprove new pesticides. Under the law, the agency has had to firstmake sure that these agricultural poisons would not harm endangeredwildlife. The E.P.A. has been required to consult with the other twoagencies to seek their opinion.

But a new policy by the Bush administration says theseconsultations are no longer necessary. The new policy permits theE.P.A. to decide independently if new pesticides are likely to harmendangered species.

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More than sixty members of the House of Representatives haveexpressed opposition to the change. They say public health and thesurvival of endangered wildlife could be threatened. They sayharmful chemicals could enter the environment without enoughsupervision or study.

The administration, however, says the new rules will speed up theapproval process for agricultural chemicals. Officials say the oldprocess was too complex. They say it was impossible to considerevery likely interaction between hundreds of chemicals and more thanone thousand species. That is how many are currently listed asthreatened or endangered. As a result, administration officials sayfew consultations have taken place in the past ten years.

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Last year, a judge ruled that the Environmental Protection Agencyviolated the Endangered Species Act when it failed to seek such anopinion. The case involves an action brought in federal court by acoalition of environmental and fishing groups in Washington state.

The issue is the possible threat from a group of pesticides toPacific salmon protected by the act. The judge said the E.P.A.'s ownreports showed serious risks from the chemicals to the survival ofthe fish. This past January, the judge temporarily restricted theuse of almost forty pesticides near salmon waterways.

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This case and others led to action in Congress. Last month theHouse Committee on Resources passed two bills. One bill would changethe process by which land is set aside for endangered species. Theother would change the process by which animals and plants arelisted as threatened or endangered. Similar legislation has beenproposed in the Senate.

Supporters say the proposed changes would modernize and improvethe Endangered Species Act. Opponents say the changes would weakenthirty-year-old protections needed for endangered animals and plantsto survive.

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You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commissionhas blamed military sonar for harm to whales.

Sonar technology sends sound waves through water to find objects.Naval forces search for submarines. But the power of sonar hasincreased since World War Two. Today, the sound may be as loud as anairplane engine.

Scientists say the noise can cause whales to suffer bleeding inthe brain and the tissue near their ear bones. The sound may alsointerfere with communication among whales and their ability to guidethemselves through the water. Scientists say whales may rise to thesurface so quickly, gas bubbles form in their blood.

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The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commissionnoted some recent incidents that appeared to involve sonar. One wasthe movement toward shore of two hundred melon-headed whales inHawaii. This took place during American and Japanese naval trainingin the area. One whale died.

Also, three beaked whales died off the Canary Islands of Spain.NATO had military exercises off the nearby coast of Morocco at thetime. Scientists reported damage to the navigation systems andorgans in the whales.

Energy companies also use sonar, to search for oil and gas. Thewhaling commission said this threatens the survival of the last ofthe gray whales near the Pacific coast of Russia.

The United States Marine Mammal Commission has been studying theeffects of sonar and other underwater noise on sea animals. Congressis expected to receive a report next year.

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For now, the Navy continues with plans to develop a sonar testingarea off the eastern United States. The Navy says it needs the areato train sailors to find the quieter submarines now used by othernations. Environmental groups say the training area would needlesslyharm ocean life.

These groups may take legal action to restrict the use ofmiddle-frequency sonar. The Navy has already agreed to limit its useof low-frequency sonar. Such waves can travel huge distances. Agroup called the Natural Resources Defense Council brought actionagainst the Navy. The Navy agreed to limit the use of low-frequencysonar to an area of the Pacific off East Asia.

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Scientists are exploring seven ships that sank during World WarTwo off the southern United States. The wrecks lie in waters thatare between eighty-five and almost two thousand meters deep. Theyare not far from each other in the Gulf of Mexico. Over more thansixty years, the wrecks may have become reefs where underwateranimals and plants live.

Man-made objects have been used to create such conditions closerto the surface. For example, old structures for oil and gas drillingat sea have been sunk in shallow water. They are thought to helpincrease fish production.

But during the current exploration, the scientists want to learnif man-made reefs can also improve deep-water environments. At thesame time, they want to learn more about the history of the ships.The exploration is to end later this month.

The study team includes government agencies and a company fromLouisiana called C and C Technologies. Researchers are using anunpiloted diving vehicle that can make video recordings and do otherjobs in deep water.

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One of the wrecks is the German submarine known asU-one-sixty-six. The submarine lies about seventy-two kilometers offthe Mississippi River Delta. Two oil companies identified it in twothousand one. During World War Two, it was among about twenty-fourGerman submarines active in the Gulf of Mexico. They sank fifty-sixships.

At one point, in nineteen-forty-two, they destroyed three ships.These carried oil, food and other supplies for America's Europeanallies. Then U-one-sixty-six began to chase a ship named the RobertE. Lee. The Lee carried passengers in addition to supplies. TheGerman submarine fired a missile and sank the ship. Twenty-fivepeople were killed.

For years, American officials thought the submarine escaped for ashort time after that attack. Now they know that a ship guarding theRobert E. Lee sank the German U-boat when the Lee went down.U-one-sixty-six had fifty-two crew members.

The U-boat and the other wrecks are now being explored ascandidates for protection on the National Register of HistoricPlaces.

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach,and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is SarahLong.

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And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more newsabout science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.